Sagacity
by Helraisingstar
Summary: <html><head></head>Valery Ashby's not one to be trusted. She's nothing but a compulsive liar and her past is a little complicated. But does Logan know any of this when he stops her from being kidnapped and brings her back to Charles Xavier's school? Absolutely not.</html>
1. Chapter 1

K so this is just a test run to see how well you guys like this story. I just watched all seven X-Men movies in the span of about four days so lets just say I got some idea's flowing at the moment xD Not saying that I'm continuing with this, but let's just see how well it goes. Enjoy!

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><p>Storm clouds rolled into New York City that night, it was cold and a tad bit windy but then again fall was just beginning. Logan was wandering around the city, trying to find something to entertain himself; maybe go and pick a fight in the rings, find a pretty girl to get down and dirty with, he hadn't decided yet. All he knew was that he was bored out of his mind and needed something to do.<p>

As he walked through an alley, lighting a cigar while doing so, he was suddenly met with the sound of a not so distant scream. He snapped the lighter shut and glanced around, trying to figure out where it could have come from. Then he heard it again.

Found it.

Logan took off running towards an abandoned warehouse that was at the end of the alley and found the door locked tight. He kicked it open and cautiously glanced around, finding a set of stairs to his immediate right. Nobody appeared to be around as a third scream rang out around him.

Logan ran up the stairs and found himself standing in front of a railing that looked down on a caged in box that contained three guys and a girl who was tied up in chains. He walked up closer to the railing, disapproving of what he was seeing; the girl couldn't be any older than twenty with pitch black hair and piercing green eyes wearing nothing but a tattered and ripped red dress. Her head was hanging as she gasped for air with blood and cuts all over her face, arms, legs and torso.

It almost made Logan sick.

"Now now my little girl, the screaming will only make it worse for yourself." One of the men standing inside the cage with her cackled. "You just need to stay quiet, cooperate, and we will be on our way."

The girl merely lifted her head up to glare at him. "Fuck off."

She got a smack across the face for that, a cry of pain breaking her lips before she fell limp again.

The fat man cackled once more and turned to the two more fit men standing at either of his sides. "You know what to do with her, but make it quick, we got a schedule to keep up with." The two men chuckled in response.

Logan growled and took a puff of his cigar. "Disgusting." He put it back into his mouth and noticed that the door to the cage was a dead bolt, so he jumped off of the railing onto the roof of the cage instead. The three men cried out and craned their necks up to look at him.

"Evening." He greeted, "Aren't you guys a little old for this? Shouldn't you be playing with girls your own age?"

The two buffer men drew guns and began to shoot. Logan flipped off of the cage and drew out his claws, slicing the chain links off and creating a doorway of his own. The bullets weren't too hard to dodge, these two goons appeared to have very poor shots and Logan was able to take them down fairly quick.

He turned to the fat man who was attempting to make a run for it.

"Oh no ya don't!" Logan took off after him, grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket and threw him backwards into the side of the cage. The fat man whimpered in pain as his whole body began to shake. He looked up at Logan. "W-What are you?!"

Logan smirked and took another drag of his cigar. "Doesn't matter. Perverted creeps like you don't deserve to find out." And just like that he brought down a hand and the man was no more.

Walking back into the cage he cut the chains off of the still limp girl, and he was quick to catch her before she hit the ground. "Hey, you okay?"

She groaned and glanced up at him, the glance quickly turned into a scowl as she stood on her own two feet and pushed out of his grasp. "Stay away from me!"

Logan raised an eyebrow and pulled his cigar out of his mouth. "Hey wait a second here- OW!" He was cut off by an unexpected punch to his face. He held his nose with his hand and glared back at the girl in front of him. "Cute. Real cute."

She shook her now red hand and continued to glare at him.

"Okay," He removed his hand from his face and raised an eyebrow. "That hurt?"

She scowled at him but crossed her arms. "I could have gotten out of that myself."

"Yes I could tell you were just too comfy in those chains to let yourself up." Logan deadpanned, putting the cigar back in his mouth. "So what's your name, kid?"

"I'm not a kid." She shot at him. "Why did you help me?"

Logan raised an unamused eyebrow. "Because I hadn't done my good deed for the day yet, why do you think?"

"You don't even know me-" She cut herself short by falling forwards, Logan caught her with ease and a sigh. "Alright that does it. I'm getting you out of here."

As he readjusted her in his arms the girl weakly looked up at him and pressed her hand against his arm. Her eyes went wide and gasped after a few seconds. "Oh my god…."

He looked down at her. "What?"

"You're a mutant."

Logan stopped walking. "How'd you know that?"

She raised her palm. "Because I am too."

He set her back on the ground, making sure that she could stand on her own. "You're a mutant too?"

She nodded. "Yes. I'm like you, Logan."

He looked her over once more in mild concern. "What's your name?"

"Valery Ashby. Do you know of any others?" She asked, a random shiver running down her spine.

Logan noticed this and took off his jacket. "Oh yeah, lots."

Valery stepped back. "What are you doing?"

He offered out the jacket to her. "It's freezing, here. You got anywhere to go?"

Hesitantly she took the jacket and wrapped it around herself, it was huge on her! "No… I don't."

"Then come on, I'm taking you somewhere safe." He said, picking her back up again. "So what is your power anyways? Mind reading?"

"Uh." Valery squirmed a bit in his arms. "Not exactly."

"Well maybe you can share it on the way. Since you seem to know so much about me and I'm at a bit of a disadvantage here." Said Logan as they walked down the street.

She shrugged. "Fine. But where are we going?"

Logan reached a car and set her down, dropping his nearly finished cigar. "A place full of people like us, a place where they can help you." He pulled out one of his claws and got inside the car to hit the locks. "Hop in."

Valery stared at him from the window and shook her head before she opened the door and slid in. "If it's so safe then why aren't you there?"

"Because," He said as he hot wired the car and took off down the street. "I get claustrophobic, I can only stay there for so long before I need to get out. But it's been a while, so now's as good a time as any to go back."

Valery raised an eyebrow and quickly pressed her palm to his forearm for a few seconds before releasing him and sitting back. "Oh, I see."

He shot her a look. "What?"

"Jean." Valery smiled to herself. "Scott and Jean."

His mouth slightly twitched into a scowl. "No idea what you're talking about."

"No don't worry. I think it's sweet." She reassured him.

Logan came to a stoplight and slammed on the breaks, staring at her for a good ten seconds. "Okay. What's this whole mind reading thing about?"

"It's not technically mind reading." Valery rested her head against the window and yawned. "My senses… are enhanced…"

About to question her, Logan was rocked out of his stare by the car behind him honking their horn. The light was now green, and he was holding up traffic.

With a grunt he pressed on the gas and took the highway that would take them out of New York City. "Care to elaborate on that?" He asked, glancing at her again only to realize that she was fast asleep. He shook his head, what had he gotten himself into?

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><p>"You just have a bad habit of finding runaway teenage girls don't you?" Scott joked as the five of them surrounded Valery, she was still sleeping, but was in the infirmary now, lying on a bed with her wounds bandaged.<p>

Logan shot him a glare. "She was being tortured, it's not like I could just ignore it and walk away."

Scott didn't reply and just crossed his arms.

"And you're certain she is one of us?" Ororo asked.

Logan nodded. "She read my mind to find out my name and that I was a mutant. She even told me that she was one as well."

"He's telling the truth." Professor X said before he looked at the doctor. "Jean?"

"Physically she's a little banged up; bruised ribs, cuts and abrasions all over her body. But mentally, I have never seen a brain like this." Jean said walking over to the charts. "Her brainwaves are immense, and her mentality rivals that of yours and mine Professor. I'll have to run some tests with her when she wakes up but according to her scans... I'd classify her to be around a level four, maybe even a level five."

Professor X looked impressed, he pressed a thumb against the girl's forehead and wasn't surprised when he felt resistance. He glanced up at Logan. "You have done a good thing by bringing her here."

Logan nodded and walked to the door. "Glad to know she'll be safe."

"You're not staying?" Jean asked him, which made him stop dead in his tracks. He turned around slowly. "No. I got other things to do than wait around for her to wake up."

"She'll want to see you when she awakens." Professor X told him. "You are just as curious as the rest of us Logan, I know you are."

It was true, but then again it was easy for the Professor to figure that out.

"Fine. I'll be upstairs." Was the only thing he said before walking out the door.


	2. Chapter 2

_Alright! So some people appear to be interested in this story, plus the idea's are pretty much writing themselves at this point so here's chapter two! Worked on it all night. Enjoy, fave and review! :)_

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><p><em>Everything was happening so fast that Valery barely had time to keep up with it. She was standing in a foyer with a stairwell right in front of two stain glass double doors. It appeared to be a mansion. The walls were covered in blood, bodies scattered all over the floor and all she could see was Logan standing in front of her. His hands were like claws, as he stood hunched over in a fighting position, facing away from her. Valery couldn't move as Logan spun around to face her, his eyes full of panic. "Look out!" He pushed her out of the way and the next thing she knew a knife was piercing through his chest.<em>

Her eyes snapped open before she could see anything else. She took in a sharp breath and began to look around. She wasn't in the car with Logan anymore, where was she?

She sat up, wincing a bit when she felt pain coming from her ribs. She looked herself over, seeing that Logan's coat was gone and that she was not in her torn up dress anymore. Instead she was wearing a black tank top with little black shorts and was covered in bandages. Confused, Valery disconnected whatever device it was that was stuck to her skin and stood up on her own two feet.

She was in a lab, there were screens with scans of her brain and its activity, samples of her blood in a vile on the counter.

Instantly her mind went to her dream. The thought of Logan being dead and that she was now being experimented on made her panic! She ran for the door that required a passcode to open and quickly ran the schematics of standard padlocks through her brain. It made the disarming of the door fairly quick. Valery peered out into the hallway, it was empty and led to even more doors. Sealing her eyes shut, she opened them with the intention of finding any guards in front of the other doors by reading their body heat. She saw no one, which was odd for an experiment facility, but slowly she crept forwards towards the door that was closest to her. It opened and she realized that it was an elevator. She stepped inside and the door slammed shut behind her, bringing her up to whatever floor it had set for itself.

The door opened at its destination and Valery cautiously exited the elevator, finding herself now in the hallway of a house. Dozens of doors lined the walls and with the help of her body temperature reading eyes, she found many of the rooms were filled with people, children mostly by the sounds of laughter she kept hearing.

Now she was confused, if this place wasn't a lab, what was it?

Suddenly one of the doors opened and out stepped a tall man who had to be around Valery's age, he had short black hair and bright blue eyes that looked over her wounded, and half naked, body confusingly. "Are you supposed to be up here?"

Valery's only instinct was to run. She took off down the hallway as he called after her. "Hey! Wait!"

But even though her injured ribs were slowing her down, not to mention causing her immense pain, she kept going, not stopping until she came to a stairwell. She didn't hesitate to run down it, missing two steps at a time as she did. Once at the bottom, she froze when she saw the stain glass double doors in front of the stairs and realized that this was the location from her dream.

Clutching her ribs, she began to back away from it and ran into something, causing her body to jump and for her to spin around with her fists at the ready. "Whoa, easy there kid." A familiar voice said to her. Relief washed over her as she lowered her hands. "Logan! I thought you were dead!"

Logan raised a confused eyebrow. "Why?"

"Uh." Valery scratched her head. "Never mind… Where are we?"

He laughed at her. "This is the safe place I was telling you about. It's Charles Xavier's school for gifted youth."

This caught her off guard. She had heard about it before! "It is?! Then why was I in that laboratory?!"

"Yeah, that was the infirmary." Logan explained, amused by the girls anxiety. "Your ribs are bruised and Jean was just going over your wounds and brain activity to make sure you were okay."

"Oh." Valery fell silent, embarrassed. "Sorry I just uh…"

Logan swatted a hand. "Don't worry, once a lab rat always a lab rat right?" When she didn't answer he continued talking. "I guess we should go see the Professor now, he'll want to meet you. But first." He pulled off the red and blue plaid button down he was wearing over his white tank top. "Cover up will ya? There're little kids here."

Valery took the shirt and put it on slowly, cautious of her ribs. "Thanks."

He nodded and led her down the hallway. As they walked, she noticed that Logan had been right, a lot of kids were in this house, and as they passed her, they'd stop and stare. It made Valery nervous, she didn't like being stared at.

They came to a large door that was already open ajar. Logan pushed it the rest of the way and motioned for her to walk in first. Valery did, and found herself in a study full of many, many books. Sitting behind the desk was a bald man in a wheelchair, he looked up from the book he was currently reading and smiled. "Ah, Logan. I told you she would want to see you."

Logan closed the door behind them and only offered a smirk as a response.

"Hello Valery. My name is Charles Xavier. Welcome to my school for the gifted. For mutants." The Professor explained, snapping the book shut.

Valery nodded. "I know who you are Professor. And I have heard of this school before. My father used to tell me about it all the time." She casted a glance over at Logan who was leaning up against the window ledge. "You should have told me."

He shrugged with the same smirk still on his face. "Sorry."

"From what I understand Valery, you are an extraordinarily smart young woman." Charles said to focus her attention back onto him.

It did just that. Valery nodded. "Yes, I suppose that is correct sir."

"Tell me my dear, what do your abilities allow you to do exactly?" The Professor asked.

She blinked. "Can't you just read my mind?"

He shook his head. "Your powers have set up a shield around your brain, nothing can get inside it. Not even me."

Both Valery and Logan were surprised by this. "Seriously?" Logan asked, baffled.

Charles nodded. "So tell us please my dear."

"Uh." Valery tucked a loose curl behind her ear as her other arm hugged her ribs. "My five senses are expanded; my vision is a perfect 20/20, I can see others body heat, can hear up to thirty miles away from where ever I am, and like you said before, am very, very smart. When I touch others I can read anything about them that I want, and I can…" She stopped and was hesitant on the last part.

"Can?" Logan echoed as he unhitched himself from the wall and walked towards her, now fully interested in the conversation.

Valery swallowed the lump in her throat and looked up at the Professor. "I have dreams of the future. They aren't correct 100% of the time, but for the most part they always are."

Charles smiled back at her. "How fascinating. You have a true gift my child."

Her cheeks got hot at the compliment.

"So do you wanna let us in on why those mob goons were torturing you?" Logan asked with a cross of his arms.

"Logan." Charles scolded.

"No." Valery defended. "He deserves an explanation, I didn't really give him one."

They waited for her to continue.

"My father, Carlyle Ashby was a business man, he ran a company that composed and creating things with special metals and alloys. And a New York Mobster named Callum Wriss wanted one of the metals that he was experimenting with… They found out about my mutation and came for me and the metal…" Valery said as she tried to hold back the tears. "They killed my father and took me away to experiment on. I was there a total of six months before I escaped, destroying all the knowledge they had of me and stealing back the metal they'd taken as well."

"I am sorry, Valery." Charles said sympathetically.

She merely nodded. "They'd just found me again and were going to take me back to Callum when Logan intervened." She turned and looked at him, he said nothing and locked eyes with her.

Just then the door opened. "She's gone! The infirmary door was unlocked from the inside and she's gone-"

Valery, Logan and Charles all stared at the doorway where a man in sunglasses stood, frozen in his steps. "Oh." Was the only thing he muttered out.

Logan scoffed, the empathy vanishing from his face. "Little delayed there Scott."

"Hold on. Logan you didn't bring her here from the infirmary?" Charles asked.

He shook his head. "I found her in the hallway."

"Yeah, I uh… sort of disarmed the security on the door and let myself out…" Valery said slowly, her cheeks getting redder and redder.

Logan grinned at her as Charles hid a smile.

Scott didn't find it funny at all. "I'll go tell Jean." He said sourly, shutting the door behind him.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't know where I was… I thought I was back in the lab…" Said Valery, bowing her head in shame.

"Fear not Valery, you are safe here." Charles reassured her. "You won't be going into another experimental lab ever again, you have my word."

She nodded, her eyes on the floor. "Thank you sir."

"Logan, if you would show Valery to her room." Charles asked.

Logan nodded and opened the door. "C'mon kid."

Valery followed him back up the staircase that she had previously run down.

"So when you tapped into my mind last night to find out I was a mutant… what did you see?" Logan asked as the two of them walked down the corridor.

She looked up at him. Flashes of blood, screams and pain filling her mind. "I saw everything, Logan."

He wouldn't look at her and kept staring ahead. "… Everything?"

She nodded. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that."

"Yeah well what can you do?" He covered. Stopping in front of one of the doors, he opened it. "Here you are."

Valery peered inside and saw blue walls with a window seat, a double sized bed, a dresser, and a closet.

"You think this'll do?" Logan asked her.

She nodded. "Yes, it'll be fine."

He gave her a quarter smile and held onto the door handle. "I'll be back up later okay? Jean's probably gonna want to have another look at you."

Valery sat down on the bed. "Okay. And Logan?"

He raised an eyebrow and popped his head back in the doorway, waiting for an answer.

She smiled at him. "Thank you. For everything."

This time it was a full on grin before the door shut.

Valery lay back on the bed carefully, letting out a groan because of her ribs. She was safe here, but there was an unsettling thought that clung to the back of her mind as she found her eyelids shutting on her.

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><p>"She's not in the Professor's study anymore." Jean said walking into the kitchen where Ororo and Scott were sitting. Scott stood up from his plate of food. "What? Then where is she?"<p>

Jean shook her head in distort. "I don't know! I can't find her."

"Do you think she left?" Ororo asked worryingly.

"Relax. She's fine." Logan said as he walked into the room. "She's upstairs in one of the rooms, probably sleeping again."

Jean turned and looked at him. "She's upstairs? Why couldn't I sense that?"

Logan grabbed one of the bottles of pop from the fridge, something he had become used to drinking in the mansion. "The Professor said she had some kind of shield around her brain, not even he could get in there."

"Are you serious?" Scott demanded.

Popping the lid off of the bottle of Dr. Pepper, Logan took a huge gulp and gave a look of mock concern towards Scott. "Would I lie to you, Scotty?"

"You have to take me to her." Jean said, gently pushing the angering Scott away. "I've got to check her vitals and run through some tests with her."

"Plus she needs clothes." Logan injected.

The other three gave him odd looks.

"Uh. She's only wearing my shirt and some shorts right now… She has no other clothes." He said awkwardly, taking another chug of the pop, emptying the bottle.

"Good god." Scott muttered. "At least Rogue wasn't naked when she was brought here."

Logan shot him a glare and threw the bottle into the sink, smashing it. "Let's get one thing straight here eyeball-"

"Okay both of you, enough!" Jean ordered, standing in between the two of them.

"I will see to it that some clothes are brought to her." Ororo said standing up and walking into the other room.

"Logan will take me up to Valery's room." Jean turned back to her boyfriend. "Scott, can you please go and arrange a class schedule for her?"

The two men stared each other down for a few more seconds before Scott pushed by to walk out the door. Jean sighed and focused her power to rebuild the shattered bottle. "I wish you would get along with him."

"Yeah well I wish he wasn't such an asshole but we can't all get what we want now can we?" Logan asked her as she set the fully intact bottle beside the sink. Jean shot him a scolding look and walked passed him.

Logan smirked to himself and followed her.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three! I know it may be a bit boring now but trust me its gonna pick up soon! Hope you enjoy it! :)

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><p>After having no luck falling back asleep and deciding that it was because her energy had already been fully recharged, Valery lay in her new bed staring up at the ceiling. She was thinking about that man she had almost run into in the hallway, she felt like she had seen him somewhere before but couldn't remember where. Her mind wandered back to the bright blue eyes, they looked so familiar to her and it was driving her insane!<p>

She couldn't remember all of her dreams, and that's why she had kept a journal to write them all down in. Sadly it had been left behind after Callum's men took her. It bugged her that she couldn't remember, and she knew that the answer was most likely in her journal back in New York.

And that's when it hit her.

She shot up into a sitting position so fast that she forgot about her ribs. Clutching her left side, she began to panic; there were secrets in that journal, and if somebody who knew where to look for it got their hands on it, it could mean big trouble.

Just then there was a knock on her door.

"Come in." She said, slowing her breathing down to make sure they didn't suspect anything to be wrong.

Logan walked in with a red head behind him, she looked familiar as well.

"Hey," Logan greeted her. "This is Jean Grey."

Oh, right.

Valery hid her smile and nodded her head. "It's nice to meet you."

Jean shook hands with her. "It's very nice to meet you as well Valery. How do you feel?"

She continued to hug her ribcage. "Well… I wish these pains would go away, but they're bearable compared to the other stuff I've gone through."

Jean sat down on the bed next to her as Logan shuffled uneasily in the doorway. "Do you mind if I bring you back down to the infirmary? I want to check your ribs and run some tests with you if that's alright."

Valery's body stiffened at the word 'tests'. "Uh…"

"If you don't feel comfortable doing it then that's alright, but I really wish for you to come back down with me so we can see the progress of your bruises." Jean said in reassurance.

"I'll even come with if that makes you feel better." Logan added, getting a glance from both girls. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans uncomfortably, glancing away. "Jean's not gonna hurt you, Val."

"Well. I guess so." Valery said, turning back to Jean. "From what I saw when we shook hands, these tests seem to be pretty harmless."

The look that she received from the older woman told Valery that she had been caught off guard. "Uh… It's not so much a test, more so a series of questions... To test your brain."

That was understandable, they were very curious after all. But Valery still shivered at the memories of her previous testing experiences. "Alright, I suppose so."

Jean smiled at her. "Great. Please follow me."

The three of them walked down to the room that Valery had previously been in. She was put back on the bed and had wires connected to her temples and one right next to her heart. Jean pressed some buttons into a machine while Logan stood against the wall with his arms crossed.

A shiver ran down Valery's spine. "Whoa."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

She shook her head. "Nothing, just some Déjà Vu. When my dreams turn into my reality I get a little chill. I don't even have to remember them, the chill just comes and I know I've dreamt of it in the past." She drew her hands out in the direction of the wall and machine. "I had a vision about a week ago of this exact angle."

"Alright Valery, I'm going to ask you a series of questions and you just respond naturally." Jean instructed, sitting down in a chair right in front of the bed. "Ready?"

Valery focused back on her and nodded.

"State your full name."

"Valery Cornelia Ashby."

"Age?"

"Nineteen."

"And what abilities do you possess?"

"Enhanced senses, dreams of the future, Sagacity."

"Wait what's Sagacity?" Logan interrupted.

"It's Latin. It means keen perception." Valery explained, looking down at her feet. "My father taught me that when I was a kid."

Jean and Valery exchanged looks before Jean continued with her questions. As time went on they got tougher and tougher to answer. It got to the point where Logan couldn't even answer any of them. The testing went on for almost two hours before Jean hit a button on the machine she had hooked Valery up to. "Thank you Valery, now why don't we check on those ribs?"

Valery nodded and took off the shirt that Logan had given her, while she did so, Jean turned back to him. "Go get the Professor and the others. We need to talk about this."

Logan nodded and kept his eyes off Valery. "I think this would be a good time for me to leave anyways."

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><p>With Valery back up in her room the five of them sat in the infirmary with scans of Valery's brain and the results of her testing in front of them.<p>

"It's unbelievable. She knew things that a _normal_ teenager shouldn't have known. She knew 9th century history, Einstein's theory of relativity, and could recite the _entire_ numeral version of pie from sheer memory." Jean said to the rest of them. "Her IQ is looking to be just below 200, I would say 195 at the _lowest_."

"So this is apart of her mutation then?" Scott asked.

Jean crossed her arms and looked up at the scans. "It could be. But something could have been done to her during the experimentation that she was talking about. It's more than likely to be the reason, but there's no way of knowing for sure."

"Maybe we can _ask_ her?" Logan asked as if the idea hadn't crossed anybody else's mind.

"She wouldn't tell us any of those things. She hardly knows us." Ororo said, looking at him.

Logan leaned back in his chair. "It's called building a relationship Storm, building being the key word in that sentence."

"And you're the one who's going to _build_ this relationship with her?" Scott asked sourly.

Logan shot him a glare in response.

"There are things she is keeping from us, that much I can sense from her. But Scott is right, Logan." Charles said, glancing at him. "Valery must build relationships with mutant's her own age. In time she may come to trust one of them enough to reveal that information. But until that time comes, we are to act as if she is a normal mutant."

Logan raised an eyebrow at the Professor. "A normal mutant? Really?"

"Yes. She will go to class, she will attend sessions in the Danger room, she will be a normal student." Charles said, looking at them all. "I do not wish for Valery to feel like an outsider among her own kind. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir." Jean, Scott and Ororo said in unison.

Charles looked to Logan who gave a single nod as his response.

"Excellent. Jean, lock this away in the vault. We don't need anybody else learning of this information in hopes of using Valery's knowledge against her will."

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><p>"Do we have a location?"<p>

"Not yet sir, we are searching the surrounding area's at the moment, but we're getting closer."

"Good. Hurry the efforts! When I find her I want her to be taken off guard. She will not escape me again."

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><p>A few days passed, Valery's ribs healed and Jean gave her the clearance to start going to class. But since it was the weekend she still had a few days to get to know the school a bit more.<p>

Due to the sudden and repetitive nightmare that she was continuously having each night, her sleeping patterns had gotten out of sorts. It was the same one she had had when she woke up at the school, the one with Logan being stabbed in the chest. Every night it was the same thing, and every night she would wake up screaming just as the blade pierced his heart. This day was no different.

"No!" She cried, jumping up in her bed. As soon as she calmed down and realized that it was only a dream, she pulled on her hair and fell back against her pillow. She knew it was a warning, but she kept praying with all her might that it was just a wrong interpreted dream.

It was early in the afternoon, and Valery hadn't eaten anything since the day before when one of the older students, Ororo, came and brought her some food. So she got dressed into some clothes that had been brought to her room; a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a hoodie with some converse shoes, and decided to go explore the school in hopes of finding the kitchen.

She wandered the halls for the longest time, finding rooms of other students, common areas that they liked to hang out in during the time they had outside of classes, and she eventually found the kitchen.

It was huge; it had several sinks, two fridges, three stoves, four tables, and an island that could seat ten people. Valery was amazed by it all.

"Hungry?"

She spun around at the voice and found a guy with short brown hair walking up to one of the fridges, looking at her as he did. "You're the new girl right? The one that Logan found? You must be starving."

Valery nodded. "I guess so, yeah."

He smiled at her and pulled out a carton of milk. "Do you like chocolate milk?"

Before she could answer another voice entered the conversation. "Bobby she's new, you can't just offer her chocolate milk." A girl with red hair and a white streak scolded him, walking into the kitchen.

Suddenly a second girl appeared from one of the cupboards. "Yeah, she needs a milkshake!"

Bobby threw both his hands up in the air. "Fine then, you guys do it. I want chocolate milk."

The girls both laughed as one of them went for the fridge while the other one turned to Valery. "I'm Rogue, this is Kitty and Bobby. Do you like milkshakes?"

Valery nodded cautiously, the three of them looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old. "Yeah. Vanilla."

"Good." Kitty smiled, pulling out some vanilla ice cream from the freezer. "Vanilla's all we got at the moment. What's your name?"

"Valery."

"Welcome to Mutant High." Bobby said with his glass of chocolate milk in his hand, he tapped the side of the glass and some frost suddenly layered itself over it. "So what's your power?"

"Uh... Sagacity." She chose her words carefully.

"Don't know what that is but it sounds cool." He smiled before taking a drink.

Valery turned to Rogue. "So you're Marie then? The one who can steal other people's powers?"

Rogue looked taken by surprise, it was a look that Valery had gotten pretty used to over the years. Followed by the famous question; "How'd you know that?"

"Logan told me… kind of." She said as Kitty put the milkshake in front of her. "Thanks."

"What do you mean 'kind of'?" Rogue asked, the other two teenagers' staring at her as well.

Valery put a hand on the glass. "When I touch people, I can tap into their memories and find out anything I want about them. When Logan and I met, in one of the memories I saw you."

"Whoa." Kitty's eyes were wide. "That is so cool!"

Rogue's mouth slowly turned up. "Yeah. That's really cool!"

Valery smiled to herself and took a sip of the milkshake.

"What's really cool?" A fourth voice asked. It made Valery look up and when she did, she froze.

"Oh hey Pete. This is Valery, she's new here." Bobby said. "Valery this is Pete."

It was the blue-eyed stranger from the hall! He looked at her and gave a nod. "Nice to see you're feeling better."

She pressed her lips together and nodded. "Thanks…"

"Wait. You know each other?" Kitty asked.

"Well, not exactly… We ran into each other in the hallway the other day, but that's as far as it got before she took off." Pete said, cracking a smile.

Valery pulled on the straw and felt her cheeks get hot. "I was kinda in a hurry."

"Anyways, what are you guys doing later? There's an eclipse tonight and we were gonna sneak up to the roof and watch it." Bobby said to them both. "You wanna come?"

"I'm in." Pete said, turning back to Valery. "What about you?"

"Um…" But Valery didn't get the chance to answer.

"Sorry to ruin your plans kids but I need to borrow the newb." Logan said walking into the kitchen. The other four gave him frightened looks and Logan grinned. "Don't worry, your secrets safe with me, but you gotta count Val out.

Valery turned to Pete and smiled at him. "Maybe the next time okay?"

He nodded. "Okay."

She got up from her milkshake and waved at them. "It was nice to meet you guys, see you around."

They said their goodbyes and she followed Logan out of the kitchen.

"So how ya feeling?" He asked her as they walked.

"Better. Where are we going?" She questioned.

Logan led her down the hallway. "The Professor wants to talk to you."

She raised an eyebrow. "About what?"

He shrugged. "Dunno, he wouldn't tell me."

They arrived to Charles study and Logan held the door open for Valery like he had on her first day. Charles was there waiting for them. "Ah, Valery." He greeted. "I hope you are feeling better."

Valery nodded as Logan shut the door and stood behind her. "Yes sir I am, thank you."

"Excellent." He beamed. "This means you can go out and get some fresh air."

She raised an eyebrow. "Fresh air sir?"

He nodded. "Yes, Logan will take you into North Salem. That way you can pick up some other clothes for yourself, see the town a bit, and get some fresh air."

"Wait. Wait. Wait." Logan cut in. "_I'm_ taking _her_ shopping? That's why you had me drag her down here?"

"Well it isn't like you have anything better to do." The Professor said in a cheeky tone. "Do you?"

That shut Logan up. He crossed his arms and looked out the window with a ticked off expression on his face.

"What? I can't go shopping, Professor. I don't have any money." Valery explained.

Suddenly a pile of bills were laid out on the desk in front of them. "I had Scott pick some up for you." Charles said folding his hands into his lap. "You've been locked up in this house for too long my dear, go out and enjoy the trip to North Salem. _Only_ North Salem, understand Logan?"

Logan looked up at the ceiling. "Crystal."

Hesitantly, Valery picked the money up and put it in the pocket of her jeans. "Thank you, Professor."

He smiled at her. "You're welcome. I expect you two back no later than supper. Is that clear?"

Valery nodded while Logan let out a sigh as his response. Valery got the feeling that he wouldn't be enjoying this.

"Come on." He gruffed, opening the door.

* * *

><p>After the two of them left, Charles went and sat in front of his window. It wasn't long after that there was a knock on the door and Scott walked in. "He's really taking her <em>shopping<em>?" He asked, baffled.

"Yes." Charles said, cracking a small smile.

"Why him? You should have gotten one of the girls to do it."

Charles looked up at his student. "You, Jean and Ororo have classes to teach tomorrow do you not? You need to prepare your lessons."

"Well yeah, but you're the one who said she should stay away from him." Scott reminded him.

"No, I said that Valery has to make relationships with Mutant's her own age. I did not say that she had to stay away from Logan." Charles said looking back out the window. "I do not know what the possible outcome of this will be, but she trusts him and I know that deep down he cares about her too."


	4. Chapter 4

"Are we _actually_ going shopping?" Valery asked as the two of them drove down the highway.

Logan sat in the drivers seat, a cigar in his mouth with his hands gripping the steering wheel while he glared out onto the road. "Guess so." He grumbled.

The thought of him following her around a shopping mall carrying her bags came to Valery's mind and it made her laugh. Logan raised an eyebrow and turned to her, pulling the cigar out of his mouth. "What?"

"Nothing." She giggled. "I just had a dream about you carrying shopping bags is all."

She saw his hand twitch as he turned back to the road. "No you didn't."

Valery laughed again. "Yes I did."

"Well if you did then it must have been a bad shopping trip because you're always waking up screaming in the middle of the night from the nightmares." He told her, taking a drag of the cigar.

Her face dropped and she gave him a look of sheer horror. "Pardon?"

Logan looked down at her. "The nightmares you've been having."

She tucked a curl in behind her ear. "I don't know what you're talking about."

He looked back at the road. "You don't think I can't hear you screaming at night? I'm right across the hall you know."

Valery bit her lip and stared out the window. "Right."

"You wanna talk about it?" He asked.

"Not really, no." She dismissed the idea quickly and they continued on in silence.

A few drags of the cigar went by before Logan broke it. "How do you even remember them all anyways?"

"I don't." Valery finally said, keeping her eyes on the moving scenery. "I can remember quite a bit of them due to my mutation, but I had them all written down in a journal."

"Had?"

"The books still in my house, back in New York." She said nervously. "It contains things that I'd rather not have anybody else ever read. I was going to ask the Professor if I could go get it."

"Contains what kind of things?" He asked.

Valery thought back to all the horrible nightmares she had written about inside that book and shook her head. "You don't want to know."

Logan cocked an eyebrow at her. "Try me."

The knife stabbing his chest flashed in Valery's mind. "No. I'd rather not."

"Why not?"

She finally turned and yelled at him. "Because it's bad! A lot of the stuff I dream about at night is bad! I never go more than two weeks without a nightmare and this week I've been having the same one each and every night!"

Before she could catch herself she realized that she had told him too much. The look he gave her was a questioning one and it looked like he was going to say something else but Valery turned away before he could.

It was quiet again.

"Well maybe we should go get it then if it's that important." He suggested.

Valery shot him an accusing look. "What?"

"New York City's only about an hour and a half from here. The shops in North Salem aren't that good anyways." Logan shrugged, carrying on with smoking his cigar. "We can go grab the book, get your own clothes, and be home for supper."

Well that didn't sound like too bad of an idea.

"But the Professor said we could only go to North Salem."

He grinned at her before throwing the cigar butt out the window. "The Professor's not here."

Valery was silent in debate.

"You want that book, don't you?" He pushed.

Ugh, shit.

"Fine. We'll go to New York." She decided, pointing a finger at him. "But if we get in trouble this is your fault."

Logan smirked. "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

The rest of the ride was silent until they got to the outskirts of the city. From there Valery pointed Logan in the direction of her and her father's house. It was a studio apartment to be precise, a very expensive studio apartment in Lower Manhattan.

They pulled up to the building and Logan shut the car off. "This it?"

Valery swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded. "Yes. Top floor." She turned to look at him. "You know Callum probably has this place on high alert right?"

Logan smirked and opened his door. "I'm almost counting on it, c'mon. I won't let you get hurt kid."

Valery rolled her eyes and got out.

The complex was a steel, thirty storey building with large pane glass doors that led to balcony's on each floor. The two of them walked into the foyer and to one of the multiple elevators, Logan looking around cautiously while Valery tried not to look so nervous.

"Relax." He whispered to her. "I got your back."

"It's not you I'm worried about." She whispered back before the door opened. They walked in and Valery hit the button for the 30th floor.

"What did this goon want with this metal that your father had anyways?" Logan asked after they reached passed the 17th floor.

She shook her head. "I can't remember exactly, but the metal was an extremely sturdy one. I can only assume he wanted it in order to make indestructible weapons."

"Bet some of those would sell pretty nicely on the black market." He mumbled before looking down at her. "I'm sorry, by the way."

Valery raised an eyebrow.

"About your dad…" He clarified. "I know what it's like not to have a family."

"Yes…" She looked at the mirrored door in front of them. "I know you do. And thank you."

They finally reached the top floor and as soon as the door opened the two of them walked out very slowly. Logan went first, Valery right on his heels. "Stay close." He warned her. She nodded and looked around, "There's only two apartment's on this floor. Ours and an old married couple who are only here in the summer time."

"Great. That means we won't be getting any complaints when we make too much noise." Logan mused.

Suddenly someone popped out from behind one of the pillars that lined the wide hallway. In a mere second, blades had slid out of Logan's hands and he slashed the assailant across the face, followed by a kick into the wall.

Valery jumped back and stared at the claws; she had seen them in her nightmare and when she had skimmed through Logan's memories, but to actually see them in real life…

Just then something grabbed Valery's shoulder. She instinctively took hold of the wrist and spun around on a dime, flipping the body with a bit of a yell. It scared the day lights out of Logan, who whirled around just in time to see her kick the stranger in the face with the heel of her shoe. He fell to the floor with a groan, flashing a tattoo that was on his neck.

Valery recognized it instantly.

"I told you they'd be here." She said turning to Logan but raised an eyebrow when she saw his eyes were as big as saucers. "What?"

The look on his face was pure awe. "You never said you could fight."

Valery shrugged. "Well you never asked."

"Where'd you learn that?"

She grinned. "Come on. A big time businessman with an only daughter? I took some pretty intense defence classes. And learned some of it online… Advanced brain and all…"

"If you can fight, then why did I have to save your ass?" He demanded as they continued on.

"Because, contrary to popular belief it is very difficult to fight off predators when you're drugged, beaten and wake up in chains." She said, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

Logan rolled his eyes as the approached the door. "This one?"

Valery nodded. "Yup. But it's locked."

He rose his foot to kick the door down.

"Don't!" She cried. "The alarm will go off."

Logan sighed and got down on one knee. "Always have to do things the hard way." He took one of his claws and slid it in between the door and the lock and the door clicked open.

"Okay we've gotta hurry up." Valery said, running inside. "Those two were just scouts. Reinforcements will be showing up shortly."

"Hey hold on here!" Logan cried, running in after her. "There could be some hiding in here."

Valery ran down the hallway and turned around to give him an impassive stare. "The door was locked. And even if they did break in the alarm would have gone off and police would be here in seconds. I think we're safe."

He sighed shook his head as she continued to her room. It was just as she had remembered it to be; green and blue walls with black furniture and a picture of a woman in a black and blue dress on the wall.

She grabbed a travel bag from her closet and began stuffing it with things like clothes and her art pencils. Then she ran into her bathroom and put some toiletries in there as well. After that she walked back into the bedroom and walked up to the wall.

"Hello Melanie." She greeted the photo, yanking it off to reveal a safe hidden behind it. Valery punched in the numbers and the door opened with a quiet hiss. It was still in there; an old, thick and worn black leatherback book with a stack of cash beside it. She grabbed them both, added them to her collection of things inside her bag and ran back out into the hallway.

"Logan?" She called him, as soon as she said it she turned and saw him leaning up against the island with a half empty beer in his hand. She wasn't impressed. "Are you serious?"

"What?" He took another sip. "I haven't had a beer in almost a week."

"Yes you poor thing." She rolled her eyes. "Can we please just get out of here before-"

Suddenly a gun went off, shooting the bottle of beer just as Logan brought it up to his mouth. The glass and alcohol went spilling down the front of his jacket, which didn't sit well with Logan at all. "Hey!" He barked at the door.

Valery froze and saw a man with long dark hair standing in the doorway of the apartment. "Oh fuck."

He smirked at her, holding a pistol in his hand. "There you are Valery, I was wondering how long you'd be before you came back here. Whose the fur ball?"

She glared back at him. "Marcus."

"You know, Callum said that your brain is so advanced that it can survive being shot at." Marcus said, pointing the gun at her. "I wonder if that's true."

The trigger was pulled, and in the split second that she had Valery dropped to the floor. The bullet whizzed passed her head and imprinted itself into the wall. By the time she picked herself back up she realized that Logan was busy fighting with Marcus. "Oh no. No no no."

Logan's claws were locked with the pistol and a knife that had been pulled. Marcus was grinning like the idiot he was. "Ah. Another mutant. How fascinating! Is there like a safe haven around here for you freaks?"

Logan head butted him in response, causing Marcus to drop the weapons and hold his forehead. He was kicked in the stomach and tossed back into the wall of the hallway.

"Val!" Logan cried.

Valery snapped out of it, grabbed her bag and ran to him. With Marcus passed out up against the wall the two of them headed for the elevator, but just as they got to it, the door opened, inside were a bunch of men who looked like they had a grudge to settle.

"Fuck." Logan cursed, grabbing Valery's arm and dragging her back to the door of the apartment. She saw him staring at the balcony. "Wait. You're not thinking-"

"Too late!" He pushed her towards it. "Go! I'll catch up!"

Valery was about to argue when a man with a tattoo covering his bald head grabbed her by her bag. She fought him off, not with out getting punched in the face once or twice, and tossed her stuff onto the couch before turning around to snap a roundhouse kick in his face. "Screw that!"

Logan growled as he stabbed two goons at the same time. "You ever going to listen to me?"

"Probably not." She answered truthfully before throwing a nearby vase at the head of another man.

Just then the elevator opened again with more of them piling out. Logan noticed this and grabbed Valery by the scruff of her sweater. "Time to go."

"We're not jumping off the balcony!" She cried, grabbing her bag as he dragged her along.

"Yes we are!" He declared, smashing through the glass and looking down over the ledge. "Just hang on and we'll be fine."

Valery didn't trust him one bit, she slung her bag over her shoulder "You are out of your freaking-"

Gunshot's cut her off and the next thing she knew Logan was pushing her _over_ the balcony's ledge.

She was falling so fast that she didn't even have time to scream. Her stomach felt like it had flown up into her throat before it abruptly stopped with something clasping her ankle very tightly. She opened her eyes and found herself two stories from the ground, hanging by one foot with her hair covering her face. She looked up as best she could with the weight of her bag (somehow) still on her back and saw Logan with one hand death gripping the ledge, while his other hand had her ankle in a firm grasp. "You okay?" He asked her.

"I am going to kill you!" She exclaimed. "I could have been ripped in half from the pressure of that!"

"You can thank me later." He mused, motioning to the ledge of the balcony below. "Grab onto that ledge."

Valery groaned and did as she was told. Once she had a firm grasp with both hands Logan let go of her. She slowly shimmied down to the next one and continued to do so until it was about a nine or eight foot drop to the ground. She let go and landed on her feet, pain shooting up into her legs and calves as she groaned.

Logan landed next to her. "There, that wasn't so bad."

"I hate you." She rasped, throwing her body onto the ground. "I can't feel my lower half."

"Well come on." Logan stood up, craned his neck up to the top of the building, then picked her up. "We gotta get outta here."

Once in his arms, Valery took this opportunity to smack him in the face. He was stunned for a few seconds before he glared at her. "Ow."

"You're an idiot!" She spat at him.

"Yeah well like it or not kid," He declared as they walked to the car. "I'm an idiot who just saved your life."

"Need I remind you that this was _your_ idea!?" She exclaimed.

"No. Trust me you don't. I'm already fully aware of that." He reassured her sarcastically as he opened the door and dropped her in the front seat.

Valery crossed her arms and glared at the dash. "I hate you."

"You're welcome." Logan slammed the door shut and the two of them got out of the city as fast as they could as dusk took over the sky.

The ride home was completely silent until they reached the outskirts of North Salem when Logan looked at Valery for the first time. He noticed a bruise forming underneath her left eye on her cheekbone and felt guilty. "So that guy back there who shot at you. He said your brain could survive being shot at?"

Valery sighed, looking out the window, clearly still mad. "The first time Callum approached my father, one of his goons shot me in the head as a warning. Mind you that it was merely a skim, but it went into my brain none the less. My brain them proceeded to regenerate itself as if nothing happened. And that's when my father found out I was a mutant."

"Wow." Logan was impressed. "And no memory loss?"

"Not that he ever told me." She said as they pulled into the laneway of the school. "Do you think we're late?"

"Can't be more than fifteen minutes." He guessed, putting the car in park. "We should be fine."

* * *

><p>Yes I know that jumping scene was shit and highly improbable but I just finished watching Brick Mansions k sue me.<p>

Anyway. I'm leaving for the weekend and have midterms next week so this is gonna be the last update for a while, but I promise I'm not quitting and that I'm gonna finish this one!

Don't forget to review guys, I'd love to hear what you think! :)


	5. Chapter 5

Hello! I am back from my week of mid terms. They were yucky, but they are done! And I have reading week this up coming week so hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter up quick! :D Thank you to the reviews and I would love to hear more from you guys! Enjoy!

* * *

><p>"You two are late." Ororo announced as soon as Logan and Valery walked into the kitchen. The entire school was there, minus the Professor, and at that moment all eyes were on them.<p>

Valery had pulled up her hood in hopes of covering her bruise and covered the left side of her face with her bangs as Logan pulled off his jacket and pointed to her. "Kid's fault. She took forever trying on clothes."

Some of the kids started to laugh as Valery shot him a look, her cheeks turning red. Logan just smirked at her and got a plate for his food.

"Did you get some nice outfits?" Jean asked her.

Valery nodded. "Yeah, I got a few." She walked up to Scott, who had just finished dishing himself up some food and pulled out some of the money so it looked like she had spent it. "Thanks for lending it to me. Here's the rest of it."

Scott looked at the bills then shook his head. "You keep it."

"You got new clothes, Valery?" Kitty asked as she sat with Rogue, Bobby and Peter at the end of the first table.

"Uh…" She put the money back in her pocket. "Yeah, I did."

Bobby raised an eyebrow. "Where are they?"

"In here." Valery covered, motioned to the bag on her shoulder. "I got a new bag too so I just put them all inside of it."

"Go try some on and show us!" Rogue grinned, some of the other students nodding in persistence.

Valery bit her lip and glanced around, her eyes falling onto Peter's. He gave her a warm smile and a single nod of his head, indicating that he was interested in seeing the new clothes as well.

"Okay fine." She admitted defeat and walked out, her body all in a fluster. She ran upstairs to her room and pulled out everything from her bag, including the journal. She held it tightly in her hands, tempted to open it, but didn't. She didn't have time to open it and skim through all of her past dreams, it would be too emotional for her. Stuffing it under her pillow, Valery began sorting through her clothes, picking out what she was going to wear down to dinner while putting the rest away in her dresser.

She finally settled on a red one-shoulder sweater with jeans and her shoes. By a stroke of luck she had also found some make-up in the side pocket of her bag and applied some cover up to her bruising cheek. It made it less noticeable, but she'd still have to come up with an excuse on how she got it.

Pulling her hair back and checking herself over one more time, Valery walked back down to the kitchen. The gasp that came from Kitty announced her presence to everybody else. "You look so cute Valery!"

The whole room turned around to stare up at her and Valery's cheeks turned bright red as she walked to grab a plate. "Thanks."

"What happened to your face?" Ororo asked, pointing to her own cheek.

"I uh…" Valery glanced down at Logan who was nearly done his first round of food. "I ran into the door…"

Some of the little kids began to giggle.

Jean smiled to hide her laugh as well. "You ran into a door?"

"Yeah, of the change room at one of the stores." She said getting herself some food and walking over to sit down beside Rogue and Kitty. "You should have seen Logan, he was so worried."

Logan snorted. "I was not."

The kids laughed again as Valery smirked to herself and started to eat.

"So what was it like having Logan following you around?" Rogue asked with a smirk. "Please tell me you made him carry your bags."

Peter and Bobby, who sat across from the girls, began to laugh. Valery smiled. "Maybe for a little while."

"Oh my god." Kitty giggled. "That is a priceless image!"

They all laughed about it. Valery looked up at Peter who just smiled back at her. "Would you still like to come watch the eclipse with us tonight?"

She blinked and asked in a low volume. "You guys are still going?"

"Yeah." Rogue whispered. "It only happens twice every year. We're not sure what time exactly, but we're going to go hang out on the roof until we see it."

"But don't we have class tomorrow?" Valery asked, she didn't want to miss her first day.

"Yeah, we'll be okay." Bobby reassured her. "Senior classes aren't until noon."

She raised an eyebrow. "Senior? But you three are only sixteen."

"Well they're seventeen, I'm sixteen for another few weeks." Kitty clarified. "And since Pete here is the oldest student, he's in the same classes as we are."

"So you're eighteen?" Valery asked Peter.

He shook his head. "Nineteen. But since there's such a gap in my age difference the Professor just put me in with them. The juniors go up to fourteen, and the seniors are fifteen to nineteen."

Huh, that made sense.

"So do you want to come with?" Rogue asked her eagerly. "Come on Val it's really cool!"

"Yeah, come on Valery!" Kitty beamed. "Please?"

Valery looked up at the four of them, the girls were smiling so hard that it looked like their faces would stay that way permanently. Bobby was nodded his head in encouragement, and Peter was smiling at her sincerely.

Well she'd never seen an eclipse before so...

"Okay." She nodded. "I'm in."

"Great!" Kitty exclaimed a little too loudly. Some of the other kids and the four adults glanced over at her with raised eyebrows, which made her sink into her seat with red cheeks. "Oops…"

"Nice going Kitty." Rogue giggled. "Almost blew our cover."

"Awe crap." The five of them suddenly heard. They all turned around and saw Logan standing up and dumping his plate in one of the sinks before walking out of the kitchen. He didn't look very happy.

Valery blinked and glanced at Rogue, they both looked at each other in confusion. "I wonder what that's all about." Rogue asked.

Something in Valery's stomach began to twist, but she quickly pushed the feeling away. "I don't know."

* * *

><p>"Logan you deliberately disobeyed me." Charles scolded from behind his desk. "I gave you specific instructions to stay <em>in<em> North Salem with Valery."

Logan stood in front of the Professors desk with his arms folded across his chest. "You went sneaking around in my head again." It was more so a statement than a question. The first few times it had been done with Logan's blessing, but now it was just getting annoying.

"I wasn't in there very long." Charles snapped. "The bruise that is currently forming on Valery's cheek was enough for me to realize where you had taken her."

"She needed something from her house." Logan explained, "A journal that contains all the dreams that she's ever had. Good and bad ones."

"Why did you go and retrieve it while she was with you?" Charles demanded. "You could have placed her in grave danger."

"Don't worry, she can take care of herself." Logan muttered. "Besides, that book could tell us what we need to know about her. You said so yourself, it could take months before she tells us anything. With that journal we might be able to learn what happened to her and maybe even things that haven't happened yet that involve us."

Charles dismissed the idea right away. "Absolutely not. It would make us no better than those who took her and experimented on her for her powers. What you are suggesting is an extreme violation of her privacy and after all she has been through I will not deprive her of that!"

Logan sighed agnostically and rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, trying to keep calm.

"I know what you are feeling, Logan." Charles spoke calmer now. "I do not condone what you are trying to do but I am warning you right now; you will not force Valery into anything. Understood?"

"I'm just trying to figure out what happened to her." Logan growled, turning his head away. He _did not_ like what the Professor was implying. "Nothing more than that."

Charles shook his head. "You are not alone, but that does not give us the right to read a very private portion of Valery's life just because we are curious about her past. You will wait for her to make the first move or I will _make_ you wait. Is that clear?"

Fully aware of what the Professor was capable of, Logan backed off immediately. He took a step backwards and nodded. "Yes."

* * *

><p>Valery could hardly wait until she got back to her room, she had been told that Kitty would come to get her when it was time for the five of them to go up to the roof for the eclipse so until then she thought about opening her journal.<p>

After having spilt some food on her shirt, she sat on her bed cross-legged in her bra and jeans, the book out in front of her. It was almost as if she was scared to open it, which she was.

She closed her eyes and put a hand on the cover, sitting there remembering its touch, how much comfort that it had given her to finally put all her dreams and fears on paper without going crazy.

The first page was opened, and Valery opened her eyes to stare down at a black inked title page that read in cursive writing; _Valery's thoughts._

She flipped through the pages to the latest entry, it was marked April 7th, the day before she was taken away to Callum's laboratory.

_Standing in the middle of Times Square. It's empty except for him and I. He turns around and is holding a bullet wound in his chest with blood dripping down the front of his shirt, he drops to his knees. Dead._

Valery remembered that nightmare, it had been a warning to her that she realized too late. Because the next night Carlyle had been killed in the middle of the lab in his building and she had been taken to Callum, along with the metal in hopes of creating new weapons.

She closed her eyes and shook the memory out of her head before grabbing a pen and writing a new entry;

_September. 15__th__ 2014_

_ I'm safe again, taking refugee in a haven for mutants in upstate New York. I fear that Callum is on the verge of finding me and I know I have to leave eventually but I like being around others like me. I've met Charles Xavier, along with many of his followers, one in particular with brilliant blue eyes._

Suddenly she remembered about wanting to fish through her dreams for a certain pair of blue eyes. She set the pen down and began flipping the pages, going all the way back to the beginning of the year until she found it.

_January. 27__th__ 2014_

_ A tall man with bright blue eyes and silver skin walks out of the shadows and stares me down. He doesn't speak, but isn't threatening. Then he disappears. _

Silver skin… Peter didn't have silver skin… did he?

Valery flipped back to her current entry;

_No word from Mac, he probably doesn't even know where I am but I bet he's worried. I retrieved this journal with the help of a man named Logan, he's different than any other man that I've ever met and has seen his fair share of pain. He cannot know about the Adamantium. I've been having non-stop nightmares about him all week. The two of us are standing in the foyer of the haven, he pushes me aside and is stabbed in the chest. I know it's a warning to me of something bad on the horizon but I refuse to believe that he will sacrifice himself for me._

Suddenly there was a knock on her door.

Valery snapped the book shut and quickly stuffed it under her pillow. "Just a second!" It was probably Kitty already.

She grabbed a plaid button down and threw it on. "Come in." She said as she did up the buttons. The door opened. "You ready?"

The voice made her freeze. That wasn't Kitty.

Slowly she turned around, her shirt half buttoned, and she nodded. "Uh… yeah."

Peter looked a bit startled as his eyes casted downwards. "I'm sorry-"

"No, it's okay." She assured him, finishing the buttons. "You've seen me worse anyways."

He cleared his throat, "Right. Well come on. Kitty, Rogue and Bobby are waiting upstairs."

Valery grabbed a sweater. "I thought Kitty was coming to get me."

He smiled at her. "I volunteered."

She smiled back and locked the door behind her. "Alright, lets go. I've never seen an eclipse up close before… But what if we get in trouble?"

Peter led her down the hallway. "It's worth it, trust me."

* * *

><p>She was up on the roof with Rogue and the others, she wouldn't be in her room right now.<p>

The lock was sliced in half, letting the door open with ease. Logan glanced around one more time to make sure that nobody was around and walked into the room. It didn't look any different as the day he had brought Valery up here for the first time. Where would she be hiding that book?

He closed the door so it was only slightly ajar and began to look around. He checked the dresser, the drawers of the nightstand, the window seat, but found nothing.

The bed was the only place Logan hadn't checked, and as he looked at the comforter he saw lines in it, indicating that somebody had been sitting there not too long ago. Then it hit him.

He yanked one of the pillows up and sure enough, the black leatherback was right there for the taking. He picked it up carefully and looked at it, it was really worn, the leather on the verge of cracking, the cover curled up from all the times that it's been opened.

Suddenly, a rush of guilt passed through Logan's body. He didn't feel good about doing this, but he had to know…

He opened to the first page and saw the beautifully laced cursive writing with little pictures all around the words. You had to be really looking at it to understand what it said, but even then some of it was illegible.

He gently skimmed through a few pages until one entry stopped him. It was smeared writing with tearstains on the page. He could barely read it;

_ July 31__st__. 2013_

_ Again with their deaths, Sarah, Andrea and Reed. I just stand there doing nothing, I can't help them. It's telling me to accept their deaths, but I know that it was my fault. If I had never left the house to sneak off with Leo I could have protected them! But I was such a child! This is my punishment, to carry on with out them and being reminded almost daily about the mistake I made._

Logan felt for her, he really did. He knew what it was like. He continued to turn the pages, unable to settle on one until he heard footsteps walking down the hallway.

He snapped the book shut and carefully placed it back where he founded, putting the pillow back like he was never there. He hid behind the door and gently pushed it shut as the steps got closer. They passed and after he knew it was safe to go, Logan opened the door and closed it again, walking back into his room as if nothing had even happened.


	6. Chapter 6

"Took you two long enough." Rogue announced when Peter and Valery joined them in the stairwell that led to the roof. Peter had told her that the alarm went off whenever the roof door was opened so they would need Kitty to help them get out undetected.

Valery shrugged. "My fault. I wasn't ready for him," She gave a playful leer to Kitty. "I thought you were coming to get me."

Kitty giggled. "Sorry. Okay, we ready?"

The other three nodded and took each other's hands; Bobby to Rogue, Rogue to Kitty, Kitty to Peter and Peter to Valery. She looked taken off guard by his hand and looked at the rest of them cautiously. "Why are we holding hands?"

"Because if we don't we'll get stuck in the floor." Rogue told her. "Trust me, it's not fun."

"Hold on tight okay Valery?" Kitty told her before they all began walking up the stairs. Valery held onto Peter's hand firmly, careful to make sure that she didn't trip on the stone steps. Peter looked back at her and smiled. "Don't worry, you won't fall."

"It's more so the thought of you letting go of me." She admitted before rethinking what she had just said. "I mean-"

"It's okay." He chuckled. "I won't let go of you."

The next thing Valery knew, they were walking through the roof's door, her body joined the others in phasing through the steel before they all found themselves underneath the night sky.

As they all let each other's hands go Valery gave a shiver. "Okay that felt weird."

Kitty smiled at her. "You get used to it."

They all gawked up at the sky, Valery staring at it in awe. "Wow. It's beautiful out here."

"Isn't it though?" Rogue asked as she balanced on the flat parapet of the roof and began to walk along it. "I love it."

Bobby's hands hovered around her closely. "Be careful, Rogue."

She grinned at her boyfriend. "You scared Bobby? Scared I'm gonna fall?"

"Shh! Guys we have to be quiet." Kitty told them.

Valery and Peter exchanged smiles. "Must feel like you're baby sitting all the time, hmm?"

He chuckled and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. "Yeah kinda."

"We should take bets on how long it'll be till the eclipse shows up." Bobby suggested as he followed Rogue along the parapet.

"Well." Valery thought for a second, craning her head back to look at the dimly lit sky. "According to all the astronomy charts I've read in my time, eclipse's are supposed to happen anywhere from one to three in the morning. Blood moons rise just before the sun does." She looked back at them, only to find the four other mutants staring at her in surprise. "What? I read, okay?"

"You read a lot from what Jean and Scott talk about you." Kitty giggled. "You're really _really_ smart aren't you?"

Valery shrugged. "I guess so."

"Like a genius?" Rogue asked.

"Sure why not."

Bobby looked up at the sky. "Well we have some time to kill if it's not showing up until at least one. Anybody want to go skating?"

Kitty and Rogue seemed to opt for the idea, but Valery and Peter decided to stay on the roof while the other three climbed over the ledge onto another one of the roof flats.

The two nineteen year olds sat and watched the younger three skate on the stone that Bobby had froze over. It was quiet until Peter spoke up. "So what happened to you?"

Valery glanced up at him. "Happened to me when?"

"When we met in the hallway you had bandages all over you. Why were you in the infirmary?" He asked.

"Oh." She tugged on her sweater sleeve. "Uh, it's a rather long story."

Peter glanced up at the still blank sky. "Well I have time to listen, as long as you're okay with telling me."

"Well." She took in a breath before she told him the same story she had told Logan and the Professor a few days earlier. About how Carlyle had gotten in trouble with Callum and had been killed. She didn't go into too much detail about her kidnapping but she told him about her dreams. "They're almost always correct. Good dreams or not."

"I'm sorry for your loss." He said after she was finished explaining everything to him.

Valery looked up at the stars. She thought about him a lot. She thought about all of them a lot. "Thanks. It takes time to heal from things like that."

The air suddenly got awkward so she changed the subject. "So what about you?"

Peter shrugged. "What about me?"

"Well you know everything about me, but I know almost nothing about you. I don't think I even know your mutation." She admitted.

He thought about it for a second before he rolled his sleeve back, revealing silver skin. The same skin that Valery had seen in her dream!

She stared at it in awe. "Wow. Organic metal."

"Steel." He corrected her. "But yes, that's exactly what it is."

"That's amazing." She preened, reaching out to touch it before pulling her hand back. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Peter chuckled. "You can touch it if you want."

Valery gently placed her hand on his arm. The steel was cold as she closed her eyes and suddenly saw a flash of images; she saw a farm, a little girl standing in front of a tractor before being tackled, and then she saw Charles.

She opened her eyes and looked up at Peter who was still watching her. "You came here pretty young then?" She asked.

He nodded and rolled down his sleeve, changing his skin. "Yeah, I was about ten when I came here. My family still lives in Russia."

"You're Russian?"

"Rasputin." He smirked a little. "My name is Peter Rasputin."

She heard the accent slip out when he said his name, and it made her smile. "As in Grigori Rasputin?"

"The very one."

"Wow. That's impressive." She giggled. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind so I don't piss you off."

Peter leaned back. "Oh come on I couldn't be mad at you."

"No?" She titled her head as she looked back at him. "Why not? Scared you'd hurt me?"

"Well I'd have no reason to hurt you." He said to her. "I think I'd be mad with myself if I ever did. You seem really nice."

Valery smiled at him. "Thanks. I think you're really nice too. But you don't need to worry about hurting me." She leaned in and gave him a wink. "I would kick your butt."

Peter laughed. "Oh really? Well we'll see about that in the Danger room tomorrow."

Before she could ask what the Danger room was, the two of them heard something from the roof flat where Rogue, Bobby and Kitty were. "What are you doing out here?"

The two of them crawled up to and peered over the parapet. They saw Scott sticking his head out the window, yelling at the young mutants.

"Oh shit." Valery whispered, trying not to laugh. "Busted."

Peter snickered slightly.

Rogue then glanced up at the roof, which made Scott do the same. Peter quickly grabbed Valery and pulled her down to the ground, the two of them hidden behind the parapet, keeping silent for a few seconds.

"Now come on you three, inside." They heard soon after.

Rogue, Bobby and Kitty were quickly dismissed back into the mansion, and Valery and Peter were left out alone in the dark.

"Well." Valery said casually, Peter still holding onto her. "I guess that ruins our plans of watching the eclipse."

He smiled up at her. "I suppose so. But just because they were caught, doesn't mean our night is over."

Valery grinned and stood up, offering out a hand to him. "I like the way you think."

He gladly took it. "Thank you."

The two of them spent the next two hours talking about all kinds of things, they began a round of truth or dare, and Peter ended up hanging off the side of the building.

"Three minutes, fifteen seconds and counting." Valery told him, not taking her eyes off his watch that he had given her.

Peter hung there as calm as could be, eyes poised on her while he grinned like a cheesy cat. "I can do this all night."

"Oh don't worry, I'm going to make you." She laughed at the watch.

"You know, you're different." He said to her. The statement caught Valery off guard and she broke eye contact with the watch to look at him. "What?"

Peter smiled at her. "You're different Valery. I've never met anyone like you before."

"Oh I doubt that." She swatted a hand as she tried desperately hard not to blush. "I'm not that special, Peter."

"Yes you are." He spoke confidently. "You've been through so much pain, and yet you're still kind and humble and-"

Suddenly his grip slipped and Peter was hanging by one hand for about three seconds. Valery screamed before quickly clasping her hand over her mouth to silence it. "Peter?"

He pulled himself back up onto the roof. "I'm okay." He grunted.

Valery giggled and offered out his watch. "I lost track. Maybe you shouldn't be so distracted next time you're hanging off the wall of the mansion."

Peter smirked and took the watch back. "Haha. Very funny." He looked down at the time. "Hey, it's quarter after one."

"Oh!" She looked up into the sky. "Is it out yet?"

Sure enough.

"There!" He pointed it out to her. Valery's eyes went wide at the near black moon, she had never seen one before! "It's beautiful." She smiled.

"It is, isn't it?" Peter turned to look at her, smiling at her happiness.

Valery felt his eyes on her and glanced over at him. "Yeah."

As they were looking at each other, Valery swore he leaned in towards her and she immediately froze up. She couldn't do this, it wasn't right.

Peter noticed her hesitation and backed away. "If you don't…"

"No!" She quickly burst out, pushing back her bangs. "I'm sorry. I just… I'm not ready for something like that… not yet anyways…"

He nodded. "I understand. I'm sorry if I pressured you."

"You didn't! Don't worry, it's just me. I'm… I'm weird when it comes to relationships…" She tried explaining this with out hurting his feelings, or giving anything away.

He nodded again and stood up, offering a hand. "Well come on, we should get back inside."

Valery took it and he hoisted her up onto her feet. "How will we get back inside?"

A smirk curled on the ends of Peter's lips. "My window is just down there. But I share a room with two other boys."

She nodded. "Okay. Let's go."

Peter climbed over the wall. "Can you climb down my back?"

"Uh." The request caught her off guard. She couldn't exactly say no since she had already climbed down a pair of balconies today. It just made things a little awkward. "Yeah sure."

She got down to the window ledge and sat in it, careful not to look down. Peter dropped down beside her, half his body pushing upwards and knocking on the window lightly. A few seconds later it opened, revealing a curly topped boy who couldn't be any older than twelve, standing in a pair of fuzzy Spiderman pajama's while rubbing his eyes. "Peter?"

"Hey Carl." Peter smiled at the kid. "This is Valery, do you mind letting us in?"

Carl nodded and stood aside, letting Valery crawl inside, Peter right behind her. He shut the window and locked it. "Thanks pal. You go back to sleep okay?"

Carl mumbled something and did as he was told, while Peter guided Valery to the door. "I had a really nice time."

Valery nodded and smiled up at him. "I had a really nice time too. It was fun. I wonder if Bobby and the girls are ticked off at us."

"Well knowing them they'll interrogate us tomorrow about it." He said. "They probably expect the worst from us."

"I can only imagine." She laughed and stood on her tippy toes to kiss his cheek. "Well good night Peter."

Peter stood in the hallway staring after her for a few seconds as she walked away. "Good night Valery." He finally called after her.

Valery's cheeks brimmed red as she quietly walked back down to her room. She pulled out the key that Jean had given her and went to unlock her door. That's when she noticed something was off.

She loosely turned the door nob and it opened with no difficulty. The dead bolt lock wasn't there anymore and looked as if it had been cut off. She looked inside and noticed that her bed sheets were slightly disarrayed and that her window seat cushion was off as well.

Somebody had been in her room.

And she had a pretty good idea of who it was.

She stormed out of her room and forcefully opened the door to Logan's, he was in bed in nothing but his jeans. And he nearly jumped out of it when he saw her open the door. "Jesus!" He stammered. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Why were you in my room?" She demanded, unphased by his near nakedness.

"I wasn't!" He denied.

Valery crossed her arms. "Oh really? So my lock just magically sliced itself in half then?"

Logan growled and stood up. "Why would I go in your room?"

"Good question. Why don't you let me in on the answer." She glared. That's when it hit her. "Did you read my journal?"

"Oh my god." He cursed. "What are we? Ten years old?"

"_Did you read my journal_!?" She repeated in a ruder tone. "Answer me, Logan."

He merely pushed a hand over his face. "Fuck kid, you really know how to-"

"Logan!" She snapped. "Did you fucking read my journal?!"

"No!" He barked back at her. "I couldn't find it!"

Valery's eyes went down to near slits as she shook her head. "Unbelievable. Why?"

"Why couldn't I find it?" He asked.

"Why did you want to read it." She closed her eyes to keep herself calm.

It was quiet for a few seconds before he pointed to the door. "Out."

But he wasn't getting rid of her that easily. "Oh I'm sorry, do you not like it when other people go into your room with out your permission? It must really piss you off huh?"

"Get out, Valery."

"What, do you think that you're in there? Seeing if you can save your own ass?!"

"I said. Out!" He bellowed.

Valery glared up at him. "That's why you helped me get it. You don't do anything unless it benefits you in some way. You don't care about anybody other than yourself."

And just like that she slammed the door shut and walked back into her room. She yanked off her clothes and got into an oversized Rangers' shirt before she crawled into bed. She pulled out her journal and held onto it tightly. She would need to find a better hiding place for it tomorrow.

* * *

><p>Logan kicked his bed before laying back down in it. Why did she have to be so difficult? He couldn't tell her that he'd actually found the book and had read something that he probably shouldn't have. She would only hate him more than she already did.<p>

He stared up at the ceiling, wondering about those names, and who those people were. Valery had never said anything about having other family members aside from her father, which began to make Logan feel very suspicious.

He grabbed a shirt and was quick to run down to the library where a dozen or so computers sat. He began researching names and locations that had anything to do with Valery. But the results that he found didn't make things any better than what they were before, they only made them worse.

* * *

><p>Wow did that scene with Valery and Peter suck. I'm sorry but I'm not very good at writing getting-to-know-you stuff xD But I hope you guys like it and that you'll keep coming to read and hopefully review some more too! :D<p> 


	7. Chapter 7

_K I apologize in advance that this chapter sucks but I haven't had the best week, a family friend passed away and another is in a coma and plus my house is under renovations at the moment. I can't promise when the next chapter will be out but I assure you it'll be MUCH better than this one so please try to enjoy!_

* * *

><p><em>It was the Georgian Bay. The water was as calm as could be with the sun shining down on the bedrock that Valery was sitting on. The warm breeze almost felt real, as did the smell of the fresh water. But the thing that tipped her off was the fact that Reed was sitting right beside her. His hair was almost bleached in the natural sunlight, and his eyes looked as blue as the water they were sitting next to. He held a bottle of beer in his hand and smiled brightly at her. "Wake up baby girl." He spoke softly. "You have to wake up."<em>

And just like that her eyes fluttered open. It took Valery a minute to realize where she was before she sat up in her bed and stared out her window; it was sunny and beautiful outside.

She smiled, pushing her hair back with one hand and looking down at her other; she was still holding her journal.

She flipped it open to the newest page;

_September. 16__th__ 2014_

_First night without a nightmare in a week. I was sitting on the bay with Reed, like we did that summer before the attack. The image was so vivid, it felt like I was there._

She snapped the book shut, stuffed it under her pillow and got out of bed, pulling out some clothes from her dresser and getting dressed. The alarm clock on her nightstand told her that it was 11:34 in the morning. She had about half an hour before she had to be in class.

She walked up to unlock her door, then she remembered the night before and the fight she had gotten into with Logan. The memory slightly shattered her good mood as she opened the door and shut it rather loudly.

Children ranging from ages seven to fifteen ran all around the halls, chatting away with one another as they ventured from classroom to classroom. Valery pulled her hair back in a loose pony tail and watched two thirteen year olds run passed her. "I hope Cyclops takes us to the Danger Room today!" One of them said with that childlike enthusiasm.

The other one nodded. "I wanna learn how to fight!"

Valery blinked and looked after them, what were they talking about? They were too young to lean how to fight, why would they have to fight anyways?

As she asked herself this she didn't notice somebody walking up behind her. "Good morning, Valery."

"Morning, hey what's the-" She spun around to ask her question but jumped backwards when she saw it wasn't who she thought it was. "Scott! Hi- I mean good morning. Shouldn't you be teaching right now?"

"Break for the younger students at the moment." He said, giving her a placid stare. She didn't know why but she felt like he didn't like her, "Sleep well?" He wondered.

"Uh, yeah, fine." She said tucking a loose curl behind her ear.

"That's good. So listen, I found three students on the roof last night after curfew, you wouldn't know anything about that… would you?" He asked her.

Valery gave him an oblivious stare and shrugged, glancing around the hall. "Why would I know anything about that? I've only been around the school for one day, not even."

Scott's gaze remained firm and domineering. "Well I thought I heard you up really late last night so I was just wondering… But you're probably right." He said to her before he headed off towards the other end of the hall. "I'll see you later in class then."

"Yes you will…" She turned around quickly. "Hey Scott?"

He stopped walking and glanced back at her.

"What's the Danger Room?"

A smirk crept onto his face. "You'll find out soon." And continued on his way.

Valery watched him go in a slight state of panic. Had he heard the fight she'd had with Logan?

She decided to forget about it and ventured down to the kitchen where a bunch of other kids were already up and making themselves breakfast. One with multiple arms was cooking five omelettes all at once while other students helped themselves to milk, fruit, toast, cereal, and all kinds of food.

"Morning." Somebody's voice caught her attention. She turned and smiled at Peter who was sitting at the island with a bowl of Lucky Charms in front of him. "Good morning. Pretty crowded place at this time of day."

"It's the Juniors lunch break right now." He explained to her as he took a bite of his cereal. "Sleep well?"

She sat down beside him, grabbing an apple from the giant bowl of fruit that was on the island. "Actually yes. First night without a dream in almost a week."

Peter smiled at her. "That's great. Must have been the eclipse."

Valery giggled. "Yeah. Or you."

Just then Bobby and Rogue walked into the kitchen, hand in hand with smiles on their faces. They caught sight of Valery and Peter almost instantly. "Hey you two!" Rogue cried, running over and jumping on the island in front of them.

"Morning." Valery said taking a bite of her apple. "Have fun skating last night?"

Peter chuckled in response.

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Very funny."

"Scott said that if we did that again we'd have detention for a week." Bobby said, leaning on the counter. "Maybe we should listen next time."

"Well there're no more eclipse's to watch." Peter spoke up. "So maybe that's a good idea."

"You were right though, Rogue." Valery chimed. "It is quite the sight."

Rogue smirked. "Glad you enjoyed it. So what did you two do once we left?"

Peter and Valery exchanged looks before they both shrugged and said in unison. "Nothing."

Bobby and Rogue weren't convinced.

"You sure?" Rogue's smirk got wider. "Because the unison thing begs to differ."

Peter continued to eat his cereal and shrugged again. "Nothing, we just talked."

"Actually." Valery pointed at him with a chunk of apple in her mouth. "We played truth or dare and he ended up hanging off the side of the mansion for about three and a half minutes."

Bobby crossed his arms and grinned. "Only three minutes?"

"I was holding back." Peter defended, finishing off the milk in his bowl. "I can go for a lot longer than three minutes."

They all laughed as something suddenly grabbed Valery's shoulder and spun her around. Naturally she was ready for a fight but relaxed when she saw who it was. "Kitty. Don't do that!"

Kitty smiled. "Sorry, but the Professor told me that I'm going to be the one showing you around to all your classes today," She offered out a piece of paper. "See? We have all the same ones. "

Valery looked it over. "Science, history, math, … So this is like any normal school?"

"Except at the end of the day we have class in the Danger Room with Cyclops… But other than that, yes." Rogue said. "It's surprising I know. I was like that when I first got here."

_He knows this, and yet I'm still registered._ Valery thought as she glanced down at the paper again. "Do I have any classes with you guys?"

Bobby, Peter and Rogue gathered around to see. "You have math with Bobby and I, history with me, and then the Danger Room." Rogue said before turning to Peter. "And you have history with them don't you?"

Peter shook his head, getting to his feet to put his dishes in the sink. "No, history's first for me. I'll meet you guys in the Danger Room."

Just then a bell rang. Everybody in the kitchen looked up and began to disperse from what they were doing. Stoves were shut off, food was stuffed into mouths, and just like that everybody was off to class.

"Well. We better get going." Bobby said, grabbing Rogue's gloved hand. "C'mon. We're going to be late for physics."

Rogue jumped off the counter and waved at the three of them. "See you guys later!"

"I better go too." Peter said, moving towards the door as well. He smiled at Valery. "Catch you guys later."

Valery smiled after him. "Bye."

"Well. We'd better hurry off too." Kitty said, "Storm isn't going to be happy if we're late."

"Kitty." Valery stopped her. "Can I actually ask you to go on ahead of me? I need to go talk to the Professor."

Kitty looked taken off guard. "But you won't know where to go."

"I can figure it out." She admitted. "It's just, it's really important and I don't want you to be late because of me."

Kitty sighed and nodded. "Okay. I'll tell Storm."

Valery smiled. "Thank you."

She smiled back before walking to the door. "Just don't get lost okay?"

Doubtful for Valery. Most likely due to the fact of her Sagacity, she had an excellent sense of direction. She headed off towards the Professor's study, fighting against the traffic of kids who were on their way to class.

The door was closed when she reached it, just seconds after the final bell rang. She went to go knock on the door when she picked up voices on the other side.

"These brainwaves are positively amazing." An unknown voice spoke. "I must meet this girl."

"She is attending classes at the moment. I will arrange a meeting for you if you'd like." The Professor was saying. "Keep in mind Hank, she is much wiser beyond her years. Do not let her age fool you."

"Oh don't be ridiculous Charles, you should know me better than that."

"It is merely a warning…" It was silent for a moment. "Perhaps this meeting may be pushed forwards. Valery? If you would come inside my dear."

Valery gently pushed the door open and inside found the Professor talking with a man… or at least she thought it was a man. She was a bit confused due to his hairy, blue body. He was wearing a suit and a pair of glasses as he turned around to stare at her.

Valery remained calm and didn't freak out like she imagined many people in the past had done to this man. She had seen far worse in her lifetime.

"Valery, this is Hank McCoy. An old friend of mine." Charles introduced. "Hank, this is Valery Ashby."

Hank extended a hand, a friendly smile on his face. "It's a pleasure to meet you Valery."

She did the same and the two of them shook hands. "Like wise."

"Hank is a brilliant biochemist who studies other mutations." Charles explained. "I called him here-"

"To look at my brain scans," Valery finished for him. "I know. And I know who he is."

"If I may, Valery. You have the most beautiful brain I have ever seen." Hank complemented. "You must have quite the grades behind you."

"Graduated NYU for general science last year." She said very casually before turning to the Professor. "Which is actually why I'm here to talk to you sir."

Charles nodded. "Hank, if you'd give us a moment."

"I was actually thinking about going to pay a visit to some of your students." Hank said, excusing himself to the door. "Perhaps we may talk later, Valery?"

"Of course." She smiled at him. "It was great to meet you Mr. McCoy."

The door shut and as soon as it did, Valery's smile vanished. "Professor. You know my level of education. I thought this was a school of higher learning so may I ask why you are enrolling me in children's classes?"

The Professor rolled himself out from behind his desk. "Well I can't just have you wandering around the school with no purpose now can I?"

"Logan appears to have no problem doing that." She shot, crossing her arms and glaring at the floor at the mere thought of him.

"Not true." He shook his head. "Logan has his own duties to this school. And to answer your question, I enrolled you in those classes because I thought it would be a good way for you to meet your peers. Better than hiding up in your room, don't you think?"

"Wouldn't be the first time." She mumbled. "So this isn't mockery?"

"Not at all my dear." The Professor said. "I wish for you to be as comfortable as possible. You are among your own kind now, we will not mock you for your abilities. You have my word. Pass your classes with flying colors, finish them before any of the other students if you wish, but please do attend them." He grabbed a book off of the shelf and opened it. "Now. Don't you have a science class to be getting to?"

Valery backed away and bowed her head. "I'm sorry for the assumption sir."

"Apology accepted, now run along." He dismissed her.

She grabbed the door handle and turned around. "Uh… the way to the Science wing?"

The Professor chuckled, not taking his eyes off of his book. "Down the hallway to your right, first staircase on your left and go right to the top."

With a nod Valery exited the study and walked out into the empty hallway. She headed for the staircase, suddenly hearing somebody walking up behind her. Before she could turn around she was grabbed by the shoulder and spun around to be pushed into the wall. With a grunt she glared into his cold blue eyes. "What do you want?"

"The truth." Logan spat, mere inches from her face. "You're lying to us all. You're not who you really say you are so who are you?!"

Valery scoffed. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I checked the records." He sneered. "Carlyle Ashby, your _father_,didn't have children. And there's no record anywhere saying otherwise."

"I was hidden for my own protection." She quickly countered.

"That's bullshit." He pointed an accusing finger at her. "You've been lying to the Professor, to Rogue and your friends, to your boyfriend."

Valery rolled her eyes. "He's not my boyfriend. And where did you find all this _evidence_ anyways?"

"Let's just say I have my own sources." Logan snapped. "Now you either tell me the truth or I'll tell the Professor about your little lying games."

"Great idea! And while you're at it maybe you can tell him how you _broke_ into my room looking for a journal that I know for a fact he told you to stay away from." She challenged, looking him dead in the eye. "If I'm going down you're coming with me, Logan."

He let out a frustrated growl. "Why is it such a big secret?"

"Why is it such a big concern to you?" She retorted.

"Because you forcefully took every secret I had to hide." He answered venomously. "I'm just trying to repay the favor."

Valery pushed back on his chest so she could free herself from him. "Well you're just going to have to keep on waiting."

He made not attempt at running after her, just stared after her as she walked down the hall.

"And Logan?" She stopped and glanced back over her shoulder. "I took pity on what I saw. Can't say that you would do the same for me."

It was silent as she walked up the stairwell. She stopped on the landing, taking in a deep breath to calm herself before she carried on to the classroom. She knocked on the door, interrupting Storm in mid sentence. "Oh Valery, there you are."

Valery's cheeks turned red as the rest of the students stared at her. "Sorry I'm late Miss."

"That's alright, Kitty told me you would be a bit late. Please take a seat and we will continue with the lesson." She said told her.

With a nod Valery zigzagged through the desks and found a seat in the corner beside Kitty.

"So how'd it go?" Kitty whispered, leaning in close to her.

"It was fine." Valery glanced out the window. "Just a misunderstanding."


	8. Chapter 8

Alright! That wasn't too long of a wait now was it? I can promise you that this chapter will make up for the last stinker I posted. Things really start to pick up! Pleeaaseeee review and tell me what you think! I'm dying to hear from you guys! I hope you enjoy! :D

PS. Slight changes to the previous chapters, see if you can spot them! ;)

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><p>The rest of the classes went by fairly quick. Valery could have easily finished all three of the final assignments in about six hours if she really wanted to. But she didn't, she was more than curious to see what exactly went on in the Danger Room.<p>

"Basically we just learn how to defend ourselves and how to utilize our powers." Kitty explained as the two of them made their way down to the room in question.

Valery recognized the hallway as the same one she had been in when she first arrived. The infirmary was around here somewhere. "So you just fight each other?"

"No," Kitty laughed. "We're taught how to work together, how to protect ourselves, stuff like that."

"But why would you have to fight in the first place?" She asked. This idea didn't sit well with her, they were just kids learning how to kill one another!

"Not saying that we would." Kitty said, leading Valery into a smaller room with lockers lined around the walls. "The Professor just wants us to be prepared." She opened one of the lockers and pulled out two black and yellow suits, one for herself and one for Valery, which she tossed to her. "Here. It's for training."

Valery caught it and looked it over before asking. "Prepared for what?"

"Magneto." Peter answered, joining the conversation as he walked into the room, already dressed up in a suit of his own.

Valery checked him over once and flashed a quick grin before returning to the conversation at hand. "Magneto?"

"He's a mutant who the Professor used to be close to." Kitty explained, glancing at Peter for support. "But they separated after Magneto started convincing other mutants that humans were out to get us all."

"No, I know who he is." Valery clarified, "But why does he pose such a threat? Isn't he locked away in prison somewhere?"

"He has a lot of followers." Peter said. "They'll give anything to get him back. And once they do they'll be after us."

Kitty walked in behind a screen to change into her suit. "Well, that's not a for sure fact."

"But that's what the Professor thinks?" Valery asked, looking at Peter.

He nodded. "He's scared for us. Scared that we won't be able to defend ourselves, which is why Scott teaches us how to do just that."

"Well I'm sure you can hold your own." Valery smirked at him. "So wait. You go in there and beat on sixteen year old kids?"

Peter shook his head, a small smirk on his own face. "No. We don't fight each other. We fight whatever is simulated for us."

"Scott doesn't want us to make enemies of each other." Kitty said as she walked out in her suit, her hair pulled back in a tight bun with her bangs hanging low. "Alright, your turn."

Valery did as she was told and went to get changed.

"So you guys just fight in a training room?" She asked as the three of them continued to walk down the hall, all in their suits.

Kitty and Peter exchanged grins. "It's not just a training room." Kitty said, "You'll see, it's pretty cool."

They came to a door at the end of the hallway that opened automatically for them. Valery couldn't help but stare in amazement as they walked inside. The room was huge!

It reminded her of the lab where the metals were tested for Carlyle's company. The ceiling was at least thirty feet high and the room itself was giant! Suffice it to say, she was quite impressed.

A few other students were already waiting inside. Once more Valery was stared at, before they turned around and carried on with their conversations.

She really hated it when people did that to her.

More students showed up, all dressed in the same suits.

"Hey guys." Bobby greeted as he and Rogue joined them. "How was your first day, Valery?"

She shrugged. "It was pretty good. Nothing overly exciting."

"I can tell you guys right now that she's going to have the final assignments done by tomorrow." Rogue joked.

Valery laughed. "I'll just leave it off till the last minute just so you guys can catch up okay?"

"Alright," A voice hollered over the rest. All of the students stopped talking and focused their attention to the front. Valery peeked through the crowd and saw Scott standing there with his arms crossed. "We're going to start with the team exercises today. And since there is no long 36 of you there will have to be one group of five." He explained, looking in Valery's direction.

"Dibs!" Rogue quickly shot her hand up. The rest of the students stared at her as she motioned to Valery. "We'll take Valery."

Scott nodded. "Very well. Okay, team three you're up first."

The students dispersed. Leaving Valery to glance around in confusion only for Kitty to link arms with her. "C'mon. We're team five, so we have to wait a bit yet."

"What exactly is going on?" Valery asked. Noticing that they were heading to a door that appeared to have been hiding in the wall. It was a stairwell leading upwards that also had a landing of stairs that lead back out into the hall.

"We're going up to the control room to watch. It's about to get pretty messy in here." Bobby said with a smile.

They all went up the stairs and stared through the glass that over looked the Danger Room. Scott sat in a chair in front of a bunch of controls. "Alright, get into position. Starting up the simulation now."

And just like that the room when dark before the walls lit up and came to life. Digitalized holographic buildings appeared around the students and very quickly the room was transformed into a battle zone.

Valery was impressed once more.

Along with the battle zone, four shadowed figures appeared as well. They had no faces and were completely black in color.

"Begin." Scott told them.

The students complied, teaming up to over come their opponents by utilizing their powers.

Valery crossed her arms and leaned into Peter. "So is there a point to this? Or do you guys just do this to let off some steam every day?"

He shook his head with a small smile on his face. "We're put into nine teams, and every day we match up against the Silhouettes for a battle."

She cocked an eyebrow. "Silhouettes?"

"They're just projections. They can change their size, turn their hands into weapons, and even manipulate the surrounding area." Rogue explained. "It's pretty cool if they weren't such a pain to fight."

Peter nodded in agreement. "And whatever team wins the most battles by the end of the term will go on to see if they can fight against Scott and Logan."

Valery's face dropped and she turned to look up at him. "Scott _and_ Logan?"

Rogue nodded. "Yeah, he helps out a lot down here."

_Logan has his own duties to this school_. The Professor's voice echoed in Valery's head. It did make sense to her, and didn't really surprise her that much. Of all things to teach in a school Logan _would_ teach kids how to fight.

* * *

><p>He opened the door easily and checked to make sure that nobody was in the hallway before he walked into Valery's room. It looked the same as it had the day before.<p>

Logan checked the same place he had last time, the journal was still there.

He picked it up and flipped to the newest page, his hand tracing over the black ink, reading the words;

_First night without a nightmare in a week._

That wasn't what he was looking for, but he was glad. He flipped the page back and gazed at the words.

_I retrieved this journal with the help of a man named Logan, he's different than any other man that I've ever met and has seen his fair share of pain. He cannot know about the Adamantium. I've been having non-stop nightmares about him all week. The two of us are standing in the foyer of the haven; he pushes me aside and is stabbed in the chest. I know it's a warning to me of something bad on the horizon but I refuse to believe that he will sacrifice himself for me._

Wait, _he_ was the reason for these nightmares?! And what was this about Adamantium?! What was Valery hiding!?

That did it. He snapped the book shut, and tossed it onto the bed, not even bothering to hide it again. He slammed the door shut and stormed down to where he knew Valery would be.

* * *

><p>Valery's group was the last one to go, and all in good timing too. She was too pumped up to go with out a fight now!<p>

"Somebody's excited." Peter chuckled, noticing how Valery was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet as they waited to go. She shot him a flirtatious smile. "I just can't wait to show off to you is all."

He winked back at her. "That makes two of us then."

Rogue patted Bobby's shoulder. "The Professor wants to talk to Kitty and I. Do you think you guys will be okay without us?"

Peter, Bobby and Valery exchanged looks and nodded. "Yeah we should be okay. You gonna be long?" Bobby asked.

Kitty shrugged. "I don't know, but we'll be back as soon as we can okay?"

Valery smiled at her. "Okay. Hurry back!"

Kitty smiled and waved before disappearing through the wall.

"Alright guys, off you go." Scott told them as team eight entered the Control room.

Rogue went to walk down the stairs, but stopped and backed up before continuing on her way. "Hey Logan."

Valery stiffened at his appearance, his eyes were cool and he looked Rogue over with a nod. "Hey kid." He then glanced over in Valery's direction. "Done already, Summers?"

"Last group to go." Scott told him.

Logan locked eyes with Valery, looking her body over quickly. "What about the new kid here? Has she had her test run yet?"

Confused, Valery looked at Scott who stood up from the controls, shaking his head. "No. We didn't have time for one."

"Well how about right now?" Logan suggested, his eyes not leaving hers.

"It's a group thing Logan." Bobby told him, sensing the tension between him and Valery.

"Every student who fights in the Danger Room needs a test run kid. And hey, if she wins then that'll be an extra point for your team." He said before finally looking at Scott. "That sound okay with you?"

Scott looked at Valery. "I don't know if she's up for it-"

"Course she's up for it." Logan preened, smirking back at her. Valery's eyes remained placid, but inside she just really wanted to smack him in the face.

"Make her only fight one Silhouette." Peter said to Scott cautiously. "Or else it won't be fair."

"Why not two?" Logan argued. "She can take two, can't cha Val?"

"Logan." Scott scolded.

"No." Valery finally spoke up, "I can take two on easily."

Logan's smirk was wide. "Can't wait to see if that's true or not."

"Oh don't you worry. It is." She glanced at Peter and Bobby once before she pushed passed Logan to walk down the stairs.

She glanced around the Danger Room anxiously as the simulation started back up, it was a lot bigger than it looked from up in the Control Room. Two Silhouettes followed suit, standing at about six feet in front of her. She had had the time to study the Silhouettes so it shouldn't have been too difficult for her to beat them.

"Begin." Scott's voice called out from the Control room.

Valery cracked her neck and shook her knuckles, taking a breath as the Silhouettes stood before her. "Let's go."

The first one raised an arm and brought its fist down. Valery jumped out of the way quickly as the second one turned its hands into very sharp looking blades and swung at her. She tucked and rolled away just in time for the Silhouette to slice right through the foundation of one of the buildings.

"Oh merde…" She cursed, glancing back at the wall before creating some distance between her and the Silhouettes that were coming in close to her. She needed to fight back, but she needed to do it without getting carved up into bite size pieces. She didn't have powers to help defend herself or to attack her opponents, all she had were the skills she'd learned over time.

And that was all she would need.

The Silhouette that still had hands swung another fist in her face. Valery caught it, giving a grunt at the strength that these holoform's had, before she turned herself around and flipped it over her body.

It sailed into a building, crashing more of the same foundation that had already been cut in half, and lay there for a minute before picking itself up. The second Silhouette went to stab her right in the chest but Valery was quick to flip backwards away from it. She wound up a fist and got it right in the chin, upper cutting it so it staggered backwards, tripping over the legs of its partner.

All she needed to do was focus, and then she'd be fine.

* * *

><p>"Logan this is a bad idea." Scott told him, noticing that the Skill Level on the Silhouette's was already on hard. Despite the fact that he had suspicions about her, he didn't want Valery to get hurt.<p>

"Don't worry Scott, she knows exactly what she's doing." Logan said in a scornful tone.

The two of them watched alone, after the students asked to leave early due to it being the last fight of the day. All but Peter and Bobby, who had both stayed behind to watch and were a little nervous about the whole idea.

Peter especially.

Valery did a back flip and ran away from the Silhouettes that were stalking her, running into the smashed wall and out of sight. The holoform's followed right behind her. It was quiet for a moment before the two Silhouettes were sent flying back out onto the foreground. They lay there momentarily before they disappeared back into pixels.

"What the hell?" Logan asked, leaning over the control panel to get a better look.

Valery emerged soon after with a length of pipe in her hand. Using it as a staff she twirled it in the air for a second before glancing up at the Control room and offering a smirk that Logan knew was directed at him.

Bobby and Peter began to cheer, claiming Valery's victory for their team.

But Logan wasn't done with her yet. "Let's see her take on this." He seethed before pushing the Skill Level button up to difficult with absolute force.

"No!" Scott cried, but it was too late. The button was jammed and none of them could do anything as two more Silhouettes appeared, they had doubled in size and were both armed with sharp spikes as their hands.

Valery was taken off guard by their appearance but preceded to fight them anyway.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Scott demanded.

"Relax." Logan sounded bored. "She's fine."

"She could get killed!" Scott shouted.

"Scott shut it down!" Bobby cried.

Scott began working on the buttons but red errors screeched across the screens in disagreement. "It isn't responding!"

Valery continuously back flipped as both Silhouettes simultaneously tried striking her down. Eventually she had to upright herself and at that moment one of the spikes skimmed her arm, drawing blood.

"Valery!" Peter shouted as everybody tensed up. Logan's eyes stayed mere slits as they all continued to watch.

Valery dropped the pipe and clutched her arm. Narrowly avoided being pierced in the heart, she rolled away and landed in a bit of a crouch. She stared up at the Silhouettes, her hand still on her arm. "Okay guys this isn't funny."

The Silhouettes proceeded to lash out at her once more, to which she jumped out of the way and fell into the buildings foundation. She lay up against it, blood on her hands, out of breath, waiting to be taken out.

Peter and Bobby shot down the stairs to the door that led into the Danger room, Peter banging on them with his steel fists. "Scott! Open the door!"

But Scott was having difficulties. "It isn't responding!" He exclaimed before taking off out the door.

Bobby began to freeze down the door. "Hold on, we'll get in there."

"We've got to help her!" Peter exclaimed.

Logan just stood watching the scene unfold, a ruthless smirk on his face.


	9. Chapter 9

Nothing like keeping you guys on edge eh? This one's a freaking doozy so I hope you guys are strapped int! Cus the plot starts now! Please keep up with the reviews I am loving your guys' imput on the story!

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><p>Valery was beyond hurt and confused at the moment. Her arm felt like it was on fire and to be frank she was slightly exhausted from all the flipping and rolling she had been doing for the last ten minutes.<p>

She dodged another swing from one of the Silhouettes and looked up at the Control Room. What was going on up there?

Either this was an accident or they were enjoying watching her go through this. But Valery knew this was no accident.

She knew exactly who to blame.

* * *

><p>Alone at the controls, Logan watched as Valery continued to struggle in defeating the twelve foot tall Silhouettes. Then she looked up at the control room and through the glass the two of them locked eyes.<p>

Logan grinned. She knew what was going on, she knew she was going to lose.

But, just then he saw a glint in Valery's eye as she turned back to the Silhouettes. She stood up, her wounded arm forgotten and as both Silhouettes brought a hand down, she jumped up into the air and clung onto their arms to reach their heads.

She held onto one of their heads and used its position to kick the other one in the face, sending it stumbling backwards.

Logan's smile dropped. She was fighting back.

Valery draped her body over the holoforms back, wrapping her arms around its neck and her legs around its waist, and used all of her weight to bring it down to the ground. Unfortunately she was still underneath it when it landed.

The Silhouette stood up, leaving her crushed in its wake. She coughed and tried to sit up, but simply fell back down onto the ground. The holoform raised its fist and brought it down once again to finish her off.

Suddenly the power went off and the entire Danger Room pixelated back into nothing.

Logan sighed to himself, annoyed as the power came back on, the controls resetting themselves.

The sound of a door being kicked down was heard, meaning that Bobby and Peter were in the room with Valery.

Logan shook his head and walked down the stairs, meeting Scott at the landing. "Was that what you planned on happening?" He asked him venomously.

Logan simply glared back at him in response. "Shut up and go help her."

* * *

><p>Valery heard voices before she saw anything. They were repeating her name over and over again and wouldn't stop.<p>

She slowly opened her eyes, seeing two fuzzy heads staring down at her. Then things cleared up a bit and she realized that it was Peter and Bobby.

"Valery?" Peter asked, propping her upper half on his knees. "Can you hear me?"

She groaned and coughed again, clutching her arm. "Hi."

Both boys exhaled in relief.

"Can you stand up?" Bobby asked, taking her gently by her good arm.

She nodded and with the help of the boys, stood up. Things were a little loopy for a few seconds but they soon settled so that she could see Scott and Logan walking into the room.

"Is she okay?" Scott asked, running up to them.

"I think so, but we'd better have Jean check her over." Peter said.

Logan chuckled from behind Scott. "She's fine."

At the sound of his voice Valery turned and glared at him. He merely offered her a smirk. "Was that fun for you kid?"

Suddenly she pulled herself out of Peter and Bobby's grasp and lashed out at Logan, punching him right in the jaw. He reeled backwards and held his face, letting out a curse before growling at her.

Valery stepped back, she was taken off guard. That punch didn't hurt nearly as much as the last one had. All kinds of anger and confusion were hitting her all at once, and then it clicked. "Where's Logan you son of a bitch?"

Bobby, Peter and Scott shot her accusing looks before doing the same to Logan. He merely cracked his jawline and smirked. "I'm right here. That was a nice hit, kinda hurt too."

Valery wound up another fist. "Where is he?!"

But Logan caught it easily and this time held her by her wrist. "You really should stop talking. You're only making yourself look stupider."

Scott moved in front of Peter and Bobby. "Let her go Logan!"

"Guys it's not him!" Valery exclaimed, pulling her weight to try and release herself.

"Oh c'mon Scotty. Why would you listen to anything this little bitch has to say?" Logan asked, looking at him before staring back at her. "Hell, who's to say that _I'm_ the liar here?" Just then one of his irises flickered, turning a bright yellow for a split second before turning back to normal.

Valery's eyes went wide in realization. "Mystique."

Scott peeled his sunglasses off in a flash and the intruder dodged the blow with Valery in their hands before drawing out a claw and holding it to her neck. "You follow me and her blood will flood these halls." They ordered while backing up towards the door.

Peter and Bobby went to pursuit but Scott held them back.

"You fucking bitch!" Valery struggled in the other girl's arms but the copycat grabbed hold of her wound and pressed down on it, hard. "Shut up!"

Valery let out a cry and sealed her eyes shut to deal with the pain. "I should have killed you when I had the chance." She seethed through clenched teeth.

"And that was your first mistake." Mystique mused as she dragged her into the hall. She pressed the button to seal the Danger Room door shut with her foot and pushed Valery along down the hallway.

"Let me guess." Valery grunted. "Magneto made a deal with Callum for you to come to get me didn't he?!"

Mystique smirked, still in Logan's form. "You always were the smart one."

Suddenly the elevator door opened, and Valery was seeing doubles. "Logan?!"

The real Logan was in jeans and a tank top, claws at the ready as he glared daggers through Mystique. "That is the last time you try ripping off my look!" He growled.

Mystique smirked, pressing the blade tighter to Valery's neck. "One step and she's dead."

Valery took this moment to step down on Mystique's foot. Hard. The mutant let out a yowl and threw her into the wall in response. Valery's head slammed into it and everything was fuzzy once more as she hit the ground.

She heard noises, hits, punches and claws thrashing together for what seemed like forever. In all this time she couldn't help but think about why she hadn't received a warning in her dreams about this. Then she began to worry; what were the chances of Magneto telling Callum where the school was? Pretty high…

She began to space out… her eyes shutting on her continuously as she fought to keep them open. It felt like a lifetime had passed by before she felt somebody turn her body over gently. "Val?"

Valery opened her eyes begrudgingly and saw Logan knelt over her. "You alright?"

Alarmed, she shot out a fist to his face. Her knuckle felt like it has just punched a wall of steel as she screamed and curled back into a ball, cradling her hand. "Jesus Christ!"

Logan shook the hit off and sighed before he gently pulled her up into his arms. "C'mon. We gotta get you to Jean."

Suddenly the door of the Danger Room was blasted open and Scott, Peter and Bobby came running out. Scott ripped his sunglasses off and shot just above Logan's head. "Let her go!"

Logan dropped to the floor, one hand still around Valery, the other up in defense. "Whoa! Hey! Hold on here Scott! It's me!"

"It's him." Valery groaned, still clutching her hand. "Fuck sakes I think you broke my knuckle!"

"Hey, you swung first." He noted, picking her up like he had after the two of them had jumped out of the apartment building. "Not my fault that you like hitting me."

"Shut up." She coughed before her eyes shut on her for good.

* * *

><p>"Where's Mystique?" Scott asked, putting his glasses back on.<p>

Logan motioned with his head to the body that was frozen on the ground, eyes wide open with a scornful look on her face. "Jean or the Professor are on their way down I think. She's still alive though."

Scott walked up to her to take a better look. "Get Valery to the infirmary. Lay her down and I'll get Jean to come in and check her over once this is handled."

Logan was in no mood to argue, he simply nodded and began to carry Valery down the hallway.

"Wait." Peter called after him.

Logan spun around. "Not now kid, she needs rest. You can see her once she's awake."

Peter stared him down before looking at Valery. He nodded and quietly backed away so Logan could continue to the infirmary.

He got her inside and placed her down on one of the beds. "Jeez you sure cause a lot of trouble." He said more to himself than to her.

The two of them were in there alone for almost half an hour before Jean walked in through the door. She rushed up to the bed that Logan was sitting beside and began to check Valery over. "Where is she?" He asked her.

"The Professor has her contained, Hank's going to take her back to D.C tonight. Ororo and Scott are going to help him." Jean answered, frowning at the amount of blood that was flowing out of Valery's arm. "So how did she get passed you?"

"I think how she got into the school is the bigger question here don't you think?" Logan retorted to avoid answering.

Jean said nothing and pulled off the upper half of the training suit as gently as she possibly could. "You can go. I've got this part. The Professor wants to see you anyways."

Logan quickly looked away from the bed and stood up, heading for the door. "I'll be back. Let me know if she wakes up before I get back here."

He found the Professor up in his study, behind his desk writing something in a book.

Logan knocked on the door as he stood in the frame. "Professor?"

The book was snapped shut. "Logan. Come in."

He was cautious with his steps and stood in front of the desk. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes I just wanted your take to this story." Charles said, folding his hands in his lap.

Logan raised an eyebrow. "My take?"

Charles nodded. "Yes. Tell me what happened today."

Logan casted a glance out into the courtyard, unable to face the Professor. "Why bother? You already know what happened…"

It was quiet for a while. "I see." Charles finally spoke. "Once she has recovered Valery will no longer be in a room on her own. She will be sharing one with Kitty and Rogue."

This surprised Logan. He shot the Professor an accusing look. "Why? Look if this is about Mystique-"

"What happened with Mystique is not the reason for this." Charles cut him off, his voice calm. "She will need a place to rest where she will not be taken off guard by any unexpected visitors."

Logan ran a hand over his face and let out an exasperated sigh. "I was just confirming a hunch."

"You were disobeying an order."

"She's not who you think she is, Professor." He said rather calmly, stuffing his fists into the pockets of his jeans. "She's hiding something."

"That may be, Logan but that does not excuse the fact that you invaded her private affairs." The Professor scolded.

Logan shot him a look. "So what're you gonna do? Ground me?"

Charles opened the book in his lap. "I will leave that to Valery. When she finds out what you've done, which she will, I will allow her to do what she wants."

If that was supposed to be a threat, Logan wasn't feeling too intimidated at the moment. He let out a grumble and walked back to open the study door.

"Oh." Charles spoke up. "By the way. I need you to watch the children tonight."

Logan stopped walking, mere inches from pushing the door open, and slowly turned his head to look back over his shoulder. A look of disbelief on his face. "_What_?"

"Yes. Jean and I must attend a meeting with a certain mutant." The Professor said, not looking up from the book. "That is all."

Baffled, Logan just shook his head and walked out the door. He instantly left to go back to the infirmary where Valery was.

Jean was just finishing up when he got there.

"What's the damage?" He asked her.

She glanced over at Valery's bed. "Possible broken ribs, Scott said the Silhouette was twelve feet tall when it fell on her. She has some bruising on her forehead too. The cut from the Silhouette on her arm has also been stitched up. All in all she just needs some rest until she wakes up and tells us what's wrong."

Logan followed Jean's gaze and was slightly surprised to find Peter sitting next to Valery's bed, holding her hand. He looked up as the door shut behind Logan but said nothing and focused back on Valery.

"He got here pretty much after you left." Said Jean.

Logan ignored the feeling of agitation that he had running inside him and turned back to her. "So I hear you and the Professor have a date."

Jean nodded. "We're going to see Magneto. If Mystique was sent here to retrieve Valery then it's a good possibility that he sent her."

That was probably true.

"Well good luck." Logan told her. "I'll just be here playing babysitter."

She smiled at him and touched his arm before making her way out the door. Then he was left alone with Peter.

"Hey." Logan spoke first, walking up to the bed with his eyes on Valery. The upper half of her suit was still off and the white tank top she had on underneath was stained in her blood. "Has she woken up?"

Peter shook his head and looked back at her as well. "No."

The two of them kept quiet for a few minutes before Peter broke it, he stood up. "She'll need clothes when she wakes up. I'll give you a few minutes to be with her."

Logan looked after him as he walked to the door. "_With_ her?"

Peter said nothing, he merely glanced back at Logan before shutting the door behind him.

Sitting back down in the chair he had been in before, Logan stared at Valery. He had no idea what he was feeling right now; it was a range of emotions starting with anger and ending with guilt. This was his fault, this was absolutely his fault and it killed him to think of what would have happened if Valery had been taken from the school.

Away from him.

He stared down at her hand, contemplating whether he should take hold of it or not. This was wrong, what he was feeling, he knew that much. She was a nineteen year old _kid_ for god sakes! But she felt older than her years and Logan couldn't quite put his finger on why he thought this. He just did.

He took her hand and held it gently, she was the most complex person he had ever met, and that was saying something since he had been around for almost two hundred years. She was so intricate with a twisted past, one that he intended on learning about.

In all the excitement that had happened in the last two hours, Logan almost forgot why he had been in such a rush to get to the Danger Room in the first place. The Adamantium and the nightmares, and the thought that Valery didn't believe that he would sacrifice himself to save her. He wanted to be mad at her, but right now all he felt was guilty and responsible for this whole mess.

"Your hands cold." A voice mumbled, snapping Logan out of his thoughts. He looked and saw Valery's eyes opening, peering up at him curiously. His hand was releasing hers in mere seconds as he looked away, embarrassed. "How do you feel?"

Valery gave a weak laugh and sat herself up. "Much better."

Logan looked back at her in confusion, the bruises on her face were gone. "Shouldn't you be in pain right now?"

She nodded. "Yeah, but there are times when a certain someone gets the sudden urge to heal me of my wounds."

He stared at her, still confused. "Care to elaborate?"

"I'll elaborate later. I ask the questions first." She snapped at him mildly. "How on earth did Mystique get passed you?"

"I'm surprised you even know who she is." He muttered, not wanting to discuss this. "But to answer your question… She approached me as Beast… and she slammed me into the wall and knocked me out cold. I woke up in a closet."

A snort left Valery's throat and she quickly covered her mouth to hide it as she tried not to laugh. "You're kidding me."

He shot her a glare. "This isn't funny! She almost killed you!"

"Well technically she had the Silhouette's almost kill me." She said thoughtfully. "She was really pissing me off, saying that I had to fight two of them myself and because I was under the impression that she was you and you were just being a massive dick, I agreed to fight them. But then she hacked the controls and that's how I almost got sliced in half."

Logan said nothing and just continued to stare at her. "So. You're pretty chipper for someone who just had a near death experience."

Valery shrugged. "Not like I haven't had any before. So lets begin with the real questions shall we?"

She smacked him upside the head, getting a wince from him. "Ow!" He cried, getting to his feet. "What is your deal!?"

She was on her feet as well, much to his surprise, and now her chipper attitude was gone too. "Why did you lie about reading my journal then go ahead and read it a second time?!"

"How did you-" Logan cut himself off and rolled his eyes to the ceiling, followed by a sigh. He'd forgotten. "Fuck."

Valery wiggled her palm in front of him. "You're not the brightest bulb there are you?"

"Well what's this about Adamantium?! And why have you been having nightmares about me and not telling me about them?!" He shot.

"That's my business! Not yours!" She exclaimed.

"Too fucking bad Valery!" He screamed back at her. "I risked my ass to get you that book!"

"Only to find out if you were in it!" She retorted, inches away from his face. "You only use people to gain something for yourself! That's all you've ever done!"

"No!" He growled, trying to calm himself down. "I helped you get it back because it was important to you. I did it for you! I could have cared less if I was in that damn book but _you_ wanted it so badly that I broke the rules to help you get it! I've had it up to here with your lies! Tell me the truth now! I deserve to know!" He concluded, his nostrils flaring.

"You deserve to know?" Valery echoed. "You _deserve_ to know? I don't owe you anything! Why do you keep fighting to get into my past, Logan? I've seen hundreds of pasts! Thousands even, and not once has anybody ever been so demanding to learn of mine in return! You are so hard headed, stubborn, incompetent, son of a-"

That did it.

Whatever she was going to say was lost in Logan's lip. He grabbed the back of her neck roughly and wouldn't let go. He had no idea what had come over him! But all he knew was that he had had enough of whatever this was. He needed answers in this fog of confusion.

Valery was utterly speechless when he released her. Her eyes had gone wide as saucers and her lips were trying to shape together words but were having no avail.

"Please." Logan begged, his voice quiet as he gave a shaky breath. "Just tell me."

Valery closed her eyes and bit her lip. She stayed that way for a couple of seconds before she opened them again and muttered out a single word. "Fine."

* * *

><p>Bet none of you were expecting that! Or a lot of you just sighed in relief yelling "FINALLY"<p>

Let me know! ;)


	10. Chapter 10

I just love to keep you guys waiting don't I? Sorry about that, had a bit of a rough time sitting down and finishing this one. It gets a little buggy near the end but don't worry the next one is gonna get really intense! Hope you enjoy and that your brains dont start to hurt because of the back story. Please don't forget to tell me what you think in the reviews! 3 :D

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><p>"I suppose it'd be best to start from the beginning…" Valery said quietly, sitting back down on the bed. "This is probably going to make your head hurt."<p>

Logan stood in front of her, his arms crossed over his chest as he waited for her to speak again.

"You were right, Carlyle wasn't my father. But he did take me in, which is why I was living with him and his wife, Melanie." She explained.

He raised an eyebrow. "What happened to your real parents?"

She bit her lip. "They've been dead for a while now."

"How long?"

Valery wouldn't look at him and picked at her fingernails in silence. So he asked her again, kneeling down beside her. "Val, how long?"

She continued to avert his eyes. "Seventy-three years… They died in 1941 in World War 2."

The color slightly drained from Logan's skin as he tried to hide the slack-jawed expression from his face. He didn't say anything, which caused Valery to finally look up at him. Clearly she was waiting for a reaction.

"S-so… you're… how old?" He eventually managed, standing back up so he didn't fall down.

"I'll be one hundred years old in a few months." She mumbled. "I was born in 1915 and stopped aging when I was 24."

Okay, this was making things a little clearer… "This is apart of your mutation?" He asked.

She tucked a curl behind her ear. "Not at first. My father was an extremely powerful mutant, he granted me everlasting youth and put a mental block on my mind so nobody could ever use it against me. A block strong enough that not even Charles Xavier could break it it seems. Even in death his powers still live on."

As much as he hated to admit it, Logan was impressed. No wonder Valery's powers were so extraordinary, the genes she got them from sounded pretty astonishing. "What happened to them?" He made sure to speak gently.

She casted her eyes back down to the floor. "We lived in Norway, and were some of the very few who were harboring Jewish families during the war. But the Nazi's came, and gassed out the house, killing my parents and the families that we had inside. I was out getting groceries and…" She was quiet for a second before she spoke in a shaky voice. "I came home and found them dead."

Logan sympathized with her, he really did. He watched a tear fall down her cheek and gently took her forearm before giving it a squeeze. "I'm sorry."

She looked up at him, accepting the sympathy, and then glanced back at the floor. "After that I took off and I was found by an American soldier who was being sent back to the US due to an injury. He found out what I was and offered me a place to stay in Canada where he and his family were harboring mutants. He was like a father to me, he helped me turn into what I am today…" Her eyes met his once more. "You may remember him, his name was Reed McCloud."

Logan's eyes went wide at the name. He did remember the man; Reed had been drafted as a soldier but his ambitions were to be a scientist who studied mutant genetics. He was probably the only one who wanted to do it on peaceful terms. Logan had met him on the front lines and proceeded to shield the man while he was being shot at by German fighter jets. That was how Reed came to the conclusion of what Logan was.

After he had explained himself to the science man, Reed had promised Logan that he would find the remaining Adamantium in the world and get rid of it in hopes of it never being used to kill Logan.

He hadn't heard from him since that time.

And Valery knew that he knew this.

"He told me about you. Not giving you a name but how you had saved his life and how he hoped to soon return the favor." She told him, bowing her head. "Unfortunately that didn't happen."

Logan blinked and turned his attention back to her. "What do you mean?"

Valery let out a long sigh and leaned forwards, her elbows rested on her knees as she held her head in her hands. "He and his wife, along with another young mutant, were shot to death one night in the summer of 1982."

_Sarah, Andrea and Reed_. The names quickly ran through Logan's head.

"I had snuck out of the house to go and meet a boy named Leo after having had an argument with Reed about going to see him. I was so mad that I didn't care what he thought so I left anyways. Things didn't go well after that, so I came back to the house…" She bit down on her lip as her voice began to crack. "The police had said that the robber picked the house at random. That the three of them had caught him off guard and he just shot them."

She felt guilty, Logan knew that much. He knelt down in front of her in hopes of getting into her line of sight. All sorts of tears were running down her face now, as she kept her eyes sealed shut and cried silently. "I didn't… I didn't receive any warning that it was going to happen… I could have saved them… All of them…"

"Hey." He rubbed her arms soothingly, really wishing that she would open her eyes and look at him. "It wasn't your fault."

"What's the point in having a mutation like this if I can never save anybody with it?" She mumbled through her tears. "My father was a fool to of wasted such talents on me."

"Well he clearly gave them to you for a reason, Val." Logan said, catching her by surprise and making her look at him. "Is he the one who got rid of your wounds?"

Valery nodded, viciously wiping away at the tears that covered her face. "He's the reason I escaped Callum the first time. But I've noticed a pattern, he only does it when I'm hurt and am needed for something important."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "You think something big is coming?"

"There has to be. He wouldn't have healed me otherwise. Normally I would have just slept the injuries off." She explained. "But I have no idea when it's going to happen."

"I'm sure we'll be able to handle it when it gets here." He reassured her.

But it wasn't enough, she glanced away from him. "I don't know."

"Val." He stood up, bringing her with him. "You need to stop beating yourself up about what happened in the past. Okay? We'll take care of it."

Valery continued to stare at the wall so Logan gently turned her towards him by her chin. "I mean it."

It took a few seconds but she eventually nodded. "Okay."

He stroked her cheek with his thumb. "One more question."

She waited.

"What's your real name?"

A small smile crept onto Valery's face, and in a thick Norwegian accent she spoke. "Valeria Julia Aspen."

Logan beamed. "Beautiful."

Just then the doors opened.

The two of them stepped away from each other far enough for Peter not to realize what was going on as he walked in with some clothes in his hands. "How're you feeling?" He asked Valery. She smiled at him as she took the clothes. "Much better. Thank you for the clothes."

"You're welcome. The younger kids have had dinner and are all just getting into bed, Jean and the Professor have left." Peter looked in between the two of them and settled his eyes on Logan. "You're in charge now."

Logan nodded. "Great."

"Well I'd better get dressed, and I'm starving." Valery announced.

"Bobby and the girls are upstairs eating," Peter told her. "They'd love to see you."

"I'll just get changed and we can go." She made shooing motions towards the door. "If you two don't mind?"

They got the hint. Logan walked to the door, expecting Peter to be right behind him. He turned around and saw that he was hugging Valery really tightly. It made his blood boil a bit, the kid had no idea what was going on. It could never work out for the two of them.

He just left. Closing the door behind him he jumped into one of the elevators and headed off upstairs.

* * *

><p>"They were really worried." Peter told Valery as they walked up into the kitchen, his hand in hers.<p>

She was still trying to pull herself together, over the fact that she had just spilt seventy three year old secrets and because they had been split to somebody she wasn't even sure that she loved. She wasn't sure where her feelings for Logan lied at the moment, her brain was pretty scattered…

"Does the whole school know what happened today?" She asked him.

Peter shook his head. "No, just us who were there, the Professor, Jean, Ororo and Rogue and Kitty. The Professor thought it would be better that way."

"I don't blame him." She mumbled as they walked into the kitchen. Valery was then met with a hug that almost knocked her off of her feet. It was Kitty.

"Valery!" She cried as she wrapped her arms around her tightly.

Valery let out an "Oof." And hugged her back. "Hey Kitty."

"Kitty!" Peter cried out, pulling the younger girl off. "Her injuries."

"Oh!" Kitty jumped backwards. "Right! I'm sorry!"

"It's okay." Valery reassured them all. "It's not that bad. I feel fine."

"Are you sure?" Rogue asked, her and Bobby running over to join them.

"Yes I'm sure, so what's for dinner?" She asked, changing the subject by walking to the fridge and opening the door. She could tell that the four of them were worried about her, she could feel them staring at her as she looked around for something to eat.

She finally settled for some left over potatoes and vegetables. And after a while of hanging out and watching a movie, they all said good night to each other as the clock struck ten.

"Well c'mon Val." Rogue told her.

Valery raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Oh." Kitty frowned a little. "Logan didn't tell you? You're rooming with us now."

She blinked. "Why?"

"Dunno. The Professor said something about the lock on your door being broken?" Rogue said.

"Oh." Valery stayed quiet for a few seconds before she nodded. "Alright,"

The three of them said their goodnights to the boys and went to the girls' room. Valery bit her lip in deep thought as they walked; did the Professor know about what had happened?

Rogue and Kitty's room was the same as Peter's had been; three beds, a big closet and nightstands next to each bed. She found her stuff already packed away and her bed already made. She froze when she saw her journal on the nightstand. "Uh… Did you guys read this?"

Kitty shook her head. "No. We didn't open it."

Valery exhaled in relief and got changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top before crawling into her new bed. "Thanks guys."

"No problem." Rogue smiled. "We've wanted another roommate for a while."

Kitty nodded in agreement. "Yeah. But watch out, Rogue snores."

"I do not!" Rogue cried, throwing a pillow at her. It went right through her as Kitty giggled in response. "Haha!"

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Cheater."

Valery laughed. "Goodnight you two."

"Goodnight!" They both said in unison before they began to fall asleep.

It was a couple hours later and Valery was still awake. Her mind couldn't settle down after what had happened today, and she was beyond scared that something bad was going to happen.

She finally got up, walking down to the kitchen to get something to get her mind off of itself.

She pulled out the vanilla ice cream and was surprised to find Peter sitting at the island in a pair of shorts. He hadn't been there when she walked in, had he?

"You okay?" He asked her.

She opened the drawer and got out a spoon. "Yeah, just having some trouble getting to sleep."

"Yeah me too… I was really worried about you today." He said.

She pulled off the lid of the ice cream. "I know you were and I'm sorry. But I told you I could handle myself when it came to fighting, didn't I?"

"Yes. While it was fair anyways…" A smile crept onto Peter's face but it didn't stay there too long. "So you and Logan are alright?"

"You mean after he almost broke my hand?" She tried to joke.

But Peter wasn't buying it. "No I mean after what happened today… We really thought it was him until Scott cut the power."

Valery tucked a curl in behind her ear and took a scoop out of the container to eat it. "Well it's not like I can be mad at him about what happened. You were right about Magneto's followers doing _anything_ for him."

"You knew Mystique." He stated more so than asked.

Valery was caught off guard by the question. "I uh… Had a run in with her and Magneto a couple years ago."

Peter raised an eyebrow, perplexed. "But he's been in prison for almost ten years now."

Fuck.

She began to panic, he couldn't find out this way. He would hate her for it! She stared into the tub of ice cream. "Uh…"

"Valery what's going on with you?" He asked, standing up to walk towards her.

She set the ice cream down on the counter. "Peter I-"

Suddenly an ear-piercing scream flooded the room and everything and anything that contained glass was breaking. Valery dropped to her knees and clasped her hands over her ears, they rang in absolute pain, tears falling down her face as she pressed her head to the floor. The cry echoed on and on for a few minutes before it was finally silenced.

She looked up, her ears still whining. She removed one hand from them and found blood on her palm, indicating that she had some leaking out of her ears. She looked over at Peter who was staggering around the island towards her. Pain from the scream clearly still on his face as well.

What the hell was going on!?

"Valery?" He asked her, walking up and dropping down next to her in a panic. The noise made her wince and clutch her ears again and Peter shook her by her shoulders when she didn't move. "Valery!"

She sealed her eyes shut and shook her head against the ground, giving whimpers to beg for the ringing to stop bouncing off the insides of her ears. "Make it stop!"

He pulled her up to her feet and stood right in front of her. "Look at me. Everything is fine, okay? Just calm down."

The tears were still falling down Valery's face as she refused to remove her hands from her ears. "Please Peter, make it stop!"

"Shh. Valery listen to me. Just calm down and don't stop looking at me okay? Eyes on me until it stops." He told her.

She slowly nodded and began to rock herself back and forth, begging with all her might for it to go away. Then, slowly and surely it did.

A few minutes had to have passed before Valery lowered her arms and let out a sniffle. "It's gone."

Peter nodded and looked out into the hall, worryingly. "That was Siryn. Something's wrong…"

Valery wiped away her tears and focused her injured ears as hard as she could. All she could pick up were boots stomping up on the top two floors. They were here. She could hear them inside of the house.

Her eyes went wide. "Oh no." And she took off out of the kitchen.

"Valery wait!" Peter ran after her.

She stopped in the foyer. The double doors were still locked, nothing had come through them yet. But Valery could sense them. They were here and there were a lot of them. "They found me."


	11. Chapter 11

And so the thriller continues! I promise that this will pick up by the main fight, the rest goes pretty fast. And yes its kinda like the house fight from XMen 2 but I loved that scene so much xD Anywho! Enjoy! And don't forget to review! I LOVE hearing what you guys thing! :D

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><p>"Charles Xavier. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Erik asked as the door of his plastic prison cell was opened. It was a nuisance, having to stare at nothing but plastic all day, but Erik had grown used to it over the last decade.<p>

Charles was pushed into the room by Jean as the door shut behind them both. "Erik. We need to discuss something."

"Do we now?" Erik chuckled. "Then go right ahead, old friend."

"Do you know a girl named Valery Ashby?" Jean asked him.

Erik shook his head, an oblivious look on his face. "No. Should I?"

"Yes, because you sent Mystique to my school to kidnap her." Said Charles. "And it almost worked."

"Almost?" Erik indulged.

"She's on her way to DC as we speak." Jean said. "So the new question is why did you send her to take Valery?"

Erik, unphased by the information, shrugged and leaned back against the wall behind his bed. "I've no idea what you're talking about."

"You've been working with a man named Callum Wriss, correct?" Charles questioned. "He was involved with Valery very recently."

"Why do you bother with questions you already know the answer to Charles?" Erik smiled. "You've had your suspicions about this girl since she arrived to your school."

Jean stared him down. "You said you didn't know her."

"No, I said I didn't know a Valery Ashby. Valeria Aspen however, I know quite well." Erik grinned.

Jean stared back at the Professor, confused. "But-"

"She is nothing but a liar my dear girl. It is what she is best at." Erik continued, glancing over at Charles who had been very quiet. "What else has she lied to you about?"

Charles gave his old friend a look of sheer horror. "Erik, what have you done?"

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><p>"Valery, what's going on?" Peter demanded.<p>

She turned to him. "We need to get everyone out of here-"

Suddenly something fell from the ceiling. It stumbled to land on its feet and quickly spun around in a panic. "Valery!"

"Kitty?!" She grabbed her arms to steady her. "What're you-"

"They're…." She fought to catch her breath. "They're all over upstairs, they're taking the kids!"

Valery looked over at Peter for a second before she turned back to Kitty. "Where's Logan?"

She shook her head. "I don't know! I phased out of bed as soon as the door was kicked down."

"What about Rogue and Bobby?" Peter asked her.

"I don't know!" Kitty was shaking. "I don't know!"

"Okay calm down." Valery instructed her. "We have to go back upstairs and save the kids. Is there a safe room or some way of getting out of the school undetected?"

"There's a passage under the school that leads out to the forest behind the property." Peter told her.

"Then that's where we'll go." She said, moving towards the stairs. "C'mon!"

Kitty looked up at Peter who turned into his metal form. "It'll be alright." He told her.

The three of them took off for the two top floors. "You two take this floor," Valery told them, continuing to run up the stairs while they got off on the first landing. "I'll find Logan and we'll all meet back here okay?"

"Wait! Valery you can't take them on by yourself!" Kitty cried.

She stopped running and looked back at the two of them, both staring back at her. "I'll be okay! Now go! Everything will be fine, I promise!"

Peter took Kitty by the hand and led her down the hallway, leaving Valery to continue onto the top floor. The first thing she heard were the sounds of children crying out, followed by the sounds of metal clashing with metal.

Logan was up here somewhere.

Seeing a couple of soldiers standing in the hallway, Valery silently snuck up behind one and was quick to wrap her arms around his neck and put him in a sleeper hold, knocking him out cold. She carefully brought him down to the ground, grabbed the gun out of his holster, slipped it into the back of her shorts, and carried on down the hallway.

Running on the balls of her feet, she crept along. Discretely knocking out soldiers as she made her way to the first room. The door was already opened ajar so Valery pushed it the rest of the way to find that the room was empty. She tip toed inside. "Hello?" She whispered. "Is anybody in here?"

She heard a sniffle coming from one of the beds and suddenly a little head was popping out from behind it. It was a girl with long curly blonde hair, crying.

"Hey sweetie." Valery said softly, walking towards her carefully. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you. We're going to get out of here."

The little girl stood up, letting out another sniffle. She couldn't be any older than ten and was wearing a pink nighty. "Where are we going to go?" She asked in a shaky voice.

Valery offered out a hand to her. "Somewhere safe okay? Come with me."

The girl took her hand and the two of them continued on down the hallway. Valery picked the girl up. "What's your name, sweetie?"

"Anna." She mumbled out.

Valery smiled, trying to make the girl as comfortable as possible. "That's a pretty name Anna. Hold on tight okay?"

She nodded and Valery held onto her protectively as they walked down the hall.

It was quiet up to the second room. Valery set Anna down and knelt down in front of her. "If there are bad guys in here, I want you to run to the stairwell okay?"

Anna shook her head. "But I'm scared!"

"You don't have to be scared sweetie, you just need to be brave instead! And I want to keep you safe so if I tell you to, you have to run. Okay?"

Anna was hesitant but nodded in understanding. "Okay."

Valery stood up, Anna right behind her, and peered around the corner. She was met with a punch to the face. It knocked her off her feet and into the far wall of the hallway, and it made Anna scream.

Valery sat up, wiping at her bloody mouth and looked at Anna. "Run Anna!"

But it was too late. The soldier who had punched Valery was in the middle of grabbing Anna by her arm and hoisting her up into the air. Anna cried out, kicking and screaming. "Let me go!"

"Hey!" Valery barked, getting onto her feet and tackling the soldier into the second room. He released Anna as the two of them toppled onto the floor. Valery craned her neck back so she could see Anna. "Go Anna go!"

The girl gave a quick nod and was gone in a flash.

Valery attempted to draw her gun on the soldier but he was quick to flip her over his head, making her land on the bed on her back.

He wrapped his arms around her neck, blocking her oxygen and choking her. "Nighty night sweetheart."

Valery's eyes went wide as she fought to breath, staring up at his eyes. But suddenly the sound of a knife piercing the skin was heard and the soldier was screaming before he released Valery and dropped to the floor with a thud.

Valery fought to get air back into her lungs, taking in deep breaths and sitting up. A hand went to her shoulder as somebody sped around the bed to kneel down in front of her. "Val! You okay?"

"Logan!" She cried, wrapping her arms around him and holding him tight. He did the same to her.

"The hell is going on?" He demanded, releasing her.

"It's Callum, he's here! He's found the school and is taking the kids! We need to get them out of here!" She exclaimed, still trying to catch her breath. "It's happening! That terrible thing that I told you about, this is it!"

"Hey." He shushed her and put his hands on her neck to make her look him in the eye. "I promised that we were gonna get through this didn't I?"

She nodded.

He pushed her bangs out of her face. "And I never break a promise. Okay? Let's go."

The two ran out into the hallway, running along the corridor, taking down guards and rescuing about three dozens of children. After they were finished in the last room and the floor was clear they all ran back down the stairwell.

They met up with Kitty and Peter, along with two dozens of kids.

"Now what?" Kitty asked.

"Get them through that passage that Peter was talking about." Valery told her as Logan took the lead in guiding them there.

Once they got there, with little to no trouble, Valery asked. "Did you find Bobby and Rogue yet?"

Peter shook his head with a set of twin boys in his arms. "No sight of them."

Logan pushed the door open. "We'll look for them, you two get these kids out of here." Logan said.

"We can help you!" Peter argued as Kitty started to file the kids inside.

"No, help them." Valery argued back, biting down on her lip. "This isn't your fight, Peter."

His eyes didn't leave hers as she grabbed his hand and held onto it tightly. "Please Peter. I need you to protect them. I'll be fine."

Without a word he nodded and went to do as he was told. Not before he took hold of her gently and kissed her lips. It was very quick, and it took Valery off guard, but before she could say anything he was already gone.

Kitty was the last one inside. "Be careful you two." Before she shut the door.

Valery sighed and ran a hand over her face. "God what have I done?"

She turned to Logan, who was giving her a bit of a pissed off look. He was obviously upset about the kiss. She scowled back at him. "What? Don't look at me like that! We need to focus on finding Bobby and Rogue!"

He just rolled his eyes. "Do you have a plan?"

Valery thought for a second and closed her eyes. She could still hear Peter and Kitty running with the kids, and soldier's scoping out the house and its perimeter, but beyond that she heard something interesting.

"Somebody has to be here somewhere, they wouldn't have left us behind Rogue." It was Bobby's voice!

"I've got Bobby." Valery told Logan. "They're both still in the house somewhere."

"Any idea where?" Logan asked.

She listened harder. "It's coming from the south side, down by the Professor's study…" Her eyes snapped open in realization. "The Science Wing!"

They darted off in that direction, and something uneasy settled inside Valery's chest. They'd have to pass through the front foyer in order to get to the Science Wing… The location from her nightmare.

_No. _She told herself. _He's not dying._

She had to protect him, the only way she knew how.

* * *

><p>Logan followed Valery down the hallway, determined not to let her or Rouge and Bobby get hurt. The two of them made it to the hallway with the Professor's study. Valery crouched down low, Logan behind her, and pulled out a gun from her shorts.<p>

Logan stared at her in surprise. "Where the hell did you get that?" He whispered.

"Shh!" She shushed him before she aimed and shot at the several soldiers that lined the hall. Dead.

Logan was startled by her actions. "That's a pretty big jump from putting soldiers into sleeper holds."

Valery looked up at him bleakly. "Like you've never done it."

He couldn't argue there. They continued on quickly and got to the stairwell without any trouble.

"Now what?" He asked her.

Valery stared up the stairs. "You're not gonna like it."

Before he could question her she cupped her hands and yelled. "Rogue! Bobby!"

"What're you-" Logan was cut off by the sound of ice smashing, followed by a soldier's body falling over the railing of the second floor.

Logan grabbed Valery by her shoulders and pulled her backwards before the body landed in front of them. It let out a groan, indicating that it was still alive, so Valery pointed the handgun at it and shot it in the head.

"Alright Rambo," Logan swiped the gun from her hands and unloaded it. "That's enough shooting for you."

"I know what I'm doing!" She told him, quickly taking the gun back and putting it back in her shorts. "Bobby! Rogue!"

Almost instantly the two teenagers in question came crashing into the railing above them. Bobby stumbled down the stairs while Rogue flew over the edge, landing right in Logan's arms. He checked her over, expecting to get his energy drained, but that's when he noticed she had her gloves on. And jeans, and a jacket, and boots.

Valery ran up to Bobby and helped him down the stairs, he had jeans, a jacket and shoes on as well.

"Aren't you two a little over dressed for bed?" Logan asked, cocking an eyebrow at Rogue who casually jumped out of his arms. "Uh…"

"We were trying to sneak out when we noticed soldiers around the school." Bobby explained, a little embarrassed.

Logan chuckled and shook his head. "You picked the perfect time there kid."

"Alright lets go." Valery told them. "We need to get you guys to the passage so you can catch up with Kitty and Peter."

"What about you two?" Bobby asked.

"We're taking care of these intruders." Logan declared as they all began to run.

Rogue dropped back down to the ground in seconds, crying out in pain. "Ah!"

Bobby skidded to a stop and went back to her. Logan and Valery following suit. "Rogue! What is it?"

She was clutching her knee. "I think I hurt my knee!"

Logan picked her back up. "We need to move. Now."

The four of them arrived to the foyer, just as the door was being kicked at. The glass broke, scattering all around the floor.

Logan saw the color begin to drain from Valery's face. "Logan. Take them to the passage."

He shot her a look. "What? No way!"

"There's no time to argue! Callum is right there! Now go!" She barked at him.

"Valery we're not leaving you to fight alone!" Bobby exclaimed.

She pointed a finger at him. "Bobby this is my mess. I need to fix it! And I don't want you guys getting stuck in the crossfire. Now _please _go!"

Bobby and Rogue looked up at Logan, Logan didn't tare his eyes away from Valery. "Val."

"Please Logan! I'm not having you three risk your lives for me! I don't deserve it!" She cried. "Just go!"

Reluctantly Logan began to step backwards towards the hallway. "Bobby let's go!"

Bobby followed him and they disappeared down the hallway just as the doors busted open.

Begrudgingly, Logan kept running until they reached the passage.

"You know where you're going right?" Logan asked Bobby as he set Rogue down.

Bobby put her arm around his neck. "Yeah why?"

"Good." He grabbed the doors handle. "The others shouldn't be too far ahead."

"Logan no!" Rogue cried out but was cut off by the door shutting in their faces before Logan took off back for the foyer.

* * *

><p>The blast shouldn't have shocked her as bad as it did. Then again it had been a while since Valery had been in the middle of all this bullshit. She struggled to stand up as Marcus walked through the door. He looked around, not impressed by the matter at all. His eyes finally landed on her and he grinned. "Hey baby. You miss me?"<p>

Valery pulled out a piece of glass from her abdomen and threw it at him. "Like fucking hell."

"Good." He chuckled. "Cus I missed you too."

"I doubt that very seriously." She announced before pulling the gun out of her shorts and loading it, she fired a shot, only to find that the mag was empty and she didn't have another one to reload it with.

Marcus started to laugh at her, and in those few seconds she threw the empty gun at him, smacking him right in the face and stunning him long enough for her to run and wrap her body around his. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, her legs tight against his stomach as he struggled to get her off of him.

He finally did after throwing her back into the wall. Valery went limp and fell to the ground, quickly trying to get up on her feet. "Jeez Val, you used to put up more of a fight." He wheezed, catching his breath for a few seconds before he walked up to her.

"Oh I'm not done yet!" She declared, trying to pick herself up. Marcus grabbed her by her chin and pulled her to her feet. He held her close. "Where's the metal, sweets?"

"Fuck off." She spat at him before head butting him in the face. Marcus cried out and released her, stumbling backwards and holding his bloody nose. "Son of a bitch!"

Valery kicked him in the stomach and gave a second to his face so he was flat out on the floor. "Bastard."

"Ugh!" He groaned. "You fucking bitch!"

She stood on his throat. "Where's Callum!?"

Marcus chuckled, or as best he could with her cutting off his oxygen. "Closer than you think."

He then grabbed her foot and twisted it hard so she lost her balance and fell onto the ground. Marcus crawled on top of her, drawing a blade from his belt and pressing it up against her cheek, breaking skin. "Your fine ass is mine."

Then, before he could do anything else to her, Marcus was picked up quite violently and tossed onto the other side of the room. He hit the wall first before face planting the floor with a groan and a cough.

Logan pulled Valery up onto her feet, holding onto her tightly. "You alright?"

She nodded, wincing a little. "The stupid fucker."

"That Callum?" He asked, glancing back at Marcus.

Valery walked up to him, picking up the blade he had dropped. "No, this is Marcus. Callum's slutty second in command. He used to rape and abuse me when I was locked up for experimentation in Callum's lab."

Marcus just smiled. "You liked it."

"I liked it about as much as you're going to like this." She declared before she stabbed him in the stomach. Marcus screamed and began cursing up a storm.

It satisfied Valery immensely, but she quickly caught onto this feeling and pushed it away as she turned her back on Marcus and said to Logan. "Callum's coming, he'll be here any second."

Logan got out his claws and stared out the doorway. "We'll be ready for him."

Valery then froze as a shiver ran down her spine. They were in the exact position for the nightmare.

When she didn't say anything Logan glanced back at her over his shoulder, then his eyes went wide and his whole body moved to grab her arms. "Look out!"

But Valery held her ground long enough for the blade to stab her in the lower back before Logan had thrown her out of the way. She held her wound, blood gushing out of her body no matter how hard she pressed on it. Then she heard another blade breaking skin and looked up just in time to see Marcus' dead body drop to the floor.

Logan's eyes were huge as he moved to come to Valery's aid. He was quickly silenced by somebody wrapping a thick, metal sprung cord around his neck and dropping him to the ground.

Valery closed her eyes and continued to press against her wound. This couldn't be happening, this could _not _be happening!

"Hello Valery." An eerie voice entered the room, making Valery's body tense up. She stayed perfectly still for a few seconds and all that could be heard was Logan being restrained up against the wall with the cords. Finally she looked up at him, hate fire in her eyes. "Callum."


	12. Chapter 12

Hi! Sorry for the long wait but I've had a pretty shitty week and my exams are coming up soon. Anywho, hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

* * *

><p>Logan struggled in the cords that were holding him up against the wall, two across his raised arms, one across his chest, another over his legs and one up tight around his neck. The more that they pressed into his skin the worse the pain got.<p>

But what he was feeling was merely a smidge of what Valery had to be feeling. She was bleeding all over the floor as she tried to drag her body across the room. It killed Logan to not be able to move and help her.

The man who had walked through the door was lean and tall, his pale blond hair was slicked back and his eyes were a piercing grey color. He gave Logan an indifferent glance before he walked up to Valery. "So nice to see you again my dear."

Valery let out a groan and weakly looked up at him. "Fuck off Callum."

"Tsk. Always such a foul mouth." Callum smiled at her before kicking her in the face, sending her sprawling onto her back with a yowl.

It only inflamed Logan's anger as he continued to fight the cords. "Leave her alone!"

Callum then focused his attention on him. He gave a ghostly smile. "So. This is the Wolverine. I'd go easy on those cords if I were you. They're made of Adamantium."

That made Logan stop his struggle, it he continued he could cut his limbs clean off.

"I see you've killed my second in command, Miss Valery." Callum took note, glancing down at Marcus' body before turning back to her. Valery rolled herself over, blood coming from her mouth. "That wasn't very nice." Callum cooed. "He really liked you."

"I did it!" Logan growled through gritting teeth.

"Hmm." Callum looked between the two mutants for a couple of seconds before he motioned to two of his soldiers to pick Valery up. They did so, holding her up by her arms. "Very fascinating. He cares so much about you, and yet he knows nothing of the truth."

Valery's head hung low as she coughed up more blood. "Don't."

"What truth!?" Logan snarled.

Callum turned to him and took a few steps forward. "How do you think we found this place? This _safe haven _if you will. A personal friend of hers who goes by the name of Erik Lehnsherr tipped us off."

"Erik Lehnsherr…." Logan's eyes went wide in realization. "Magneto."

He shot Valery a look of alarm, but her head stayed low. She refused to look up at him, already aware of what he was thinking.

"Yes. You see, he and I made a deal. He gave me the location of this _school _allowing me to take Valery and do what I wanted with her. But there was a catch; I was to leave the rest of you freaks alone." Callum stopped in front of Logan, grinning from ear to ear. "However, Mister Lehnsherr isn't here. So instead I will be taking you, and the two other little freaks that I managed to capture, back to my lab." He turned back to Valery. "This way we can have a little more success with the interrogation of Miss Valery here."

It was then that Valery rose her head. Her eyes were wide as saucers as tears ran down her face.

"So my dear," Callum readdressed her by taking hold of her jaw. "Will you cooperate now that I have some of your fellow mutants involved in this?"

She spat blood at him in response.

Callum stepped back in disgust and quickly slapped her across the face before drawing a kerchief from the pocket of his suit and wiping at the blood. "Ignorant bitch! Take them to the truck! And somebody pick up Marcus' damn body!"

Valery was dragged away, kicking and screaming. "Callum I'm the one you want! Leave them alone!"

"Not a chance my dear." Callum glanced down at Marcus before turning to Logan. "Your boyfriend killed my second in command."

"You just wait bub." Logan threatened. "Someday real soon you'll be joining him."

Callum gave an amused smile before motioning to one of the soldiers. "Shut him up."

The last thing he felt was something stabbing the side of his neck. It felt like a needle, and Logan's neck twitched in discomfort before he felt his body growing weak, and then everything went dark.

* * *

><p>This was all her fault. This was all her stupid fucking fault!<p>

Valery hung in the back of the van, chained up against the wall, limp and hurting.

And the children. _The children_.

The two of them were asleep, _locked inside a crate_ like a pair of mangy animals. The oldest had to be twelve tops, while the other couldn't be older than seven. It was an inhuman thing to do and Valery swore that Callum was going to suffer for it. Take her away from the school, kick the living shit out of her, fine. But he was going to pay _dearly _for bringing them along.

She looked up at Logan who was across from her, still unconscious from the antidote that had been given to him. His wrist's cuffed above his head so he couldn't move his hands. She felt guilty about the marks on his body from the cords, apparently she hadn't grabbed _all _of the Adamantium like she thought she had. Despite it all, the fact that the metal would still mark his skin was very fascinating, they looked like burns and would most likely stay as scars for quite some time.

Just then Logan started to stir. He let out a groan as his eyes opened, and once he realized that he was tied up he tried to fight against his bonds. He soon realized that it was useless and stopped, and that's when his eyes landed on Valery. He looked her mangled body over and sighed. "Val."

"I'm fine." She lied. "It looks worse that it feels."

He didn't seem to be buying it, he started down at the wound she'd gotten from Marcus' knife. "Val, why did you take that hit for me?"

She hung her head. "You know the nightmare I kept having when I first got to the school? That was it."

"But I could have recovered easily from it. Why'd you do it?"

She bit her lip and closed her eyes. "Logan, you have to understand that I never meant for this to happen. The last thing I'd ever want to do is to bring harm to you or anyone from the school."

"You know more than you're telling Val. How do you know Erik? Why is he a _personal friend_ of yours?" Logan questioned.

"He isn't my friend." She quickly snapped her eyes open and looked up as the truck began to climb up a hill. "Just trust me Logan, I'm going to fix this."

"Shut up." The guard threatened, pointing a gun at Valery. She scowled back at him but remained quiet… For only a few seconds before she brought her foot up and kicked the hand that had the gun in it. It shot off, shooting right through the bolt that had Logan's cuffs welted to the wall, releasing him. He dropped to the floor and tried to move towards her, but made a miss step before gravity tossed him to the back of the truck where the kids crate was.

At that moment Valery brought her foot back to the wall she was against and kicked the button that opened the back hatch of the truck. Logan, the guard, and the crate went flying out the back out onto the road.

The truck carried on up the hill as if nothing had happened, and Valery exhaled in relief. They were safe now, and that was all that mattered. This was her mess, the one that she was going to clean up, alone.

* * *

><p>Logan gave a tuck and roll before he stood up properly, bits of rocks stuck in his skin from the road. The taillights of the truck disappeared from his sight, and then it was just him, the kids and the guard.<p>

Speaking of which.

The guard had founds his baring's and stood up to fight. Logan quickly pulled out a claw and silenced him. He found a flashlight in the guard's belt and plucked it out to use. The crate with the kids was on the other side of the road and Logan could hear them inside it.

He ran over to them and ripped the lid off, surprised to find the children submerged in pillows. They gave him a look of curiosity, he gave it right back. "How'd you guys get these in here?"

The oldest spoke up. "Uh… I brought them from my room… I can transport things…"

Logan smiled at him, "Good job kid. Now how about getting us back to the school?"

He shook his head bashfully. "I can only teleport objects. My powers aren't strong enough to do it to people yet…"

"Oh." Logan was a bit disappointed, but what could he expect? The kid was like twelve years old. "Well, then I guess we're walking."

"I'm tired." The little girl whined.

Logan sighed and picked her up. He looked down at the boy. "What about you?"

He shrugged, grabbing the flashlight. "I can walk."

"Alright, let's go." Logan declared. They were about an hours drive away from the school, and Logan did eventually end up carrying both kids, the boy taking up residence on his back.

The sun was just rising when they got to the driveway of the Academy. Jean, Scott, Ororo and the Professor were there waiting for him. Scott and Ororo took the sleeping kids inside, while Jean and the Professor stayed behind. "What happened?" Jean asked.

"It was an attack." Logan explained. "They were after Valery and brought us along as insurance. But Rogue, Bobby and the rest of the kids made it out."

"We know, we've got them inside." Jean told him. "You said they came for Valery?"

"Yeah." Logan rubbed the back of his neck, irritated at the thought of her still chained up in that truck. "You guys aren't going to believe this but-"

"Erik told them where the school was so they could take Valery, we know." The Professor cut him off. "Logan, there's something we have to tell you."

Logan waited.

"Valery used to work for Erik…." Jean said slowly. "She used to be apart of the Brotherhood."

Logan's eyes got huge. A chill ran down his spine. "What? That's impossible."

"He told us what we needed to know, and then I saw the rest for myself." Charles shook his head solemnly. "Logan she is a murderer. She's killed hundreds of mutants and humans alike. She helped Erik and his brotherhood accomplish their tasks… She's not the person I thought she was."

The idea of Valery murdering innocent people just couldn't process in Logan's mind. "It's no true! She saved us! She's not a murderer!"

"Logan she's nothing but a liar. She lied about her name, her family… Everything she told you was a lie." Jean spoke, trying to reason with him.

But Logan merely swatted an arm, turning back to the road. "I don't believe a word of it! Erik's just messing with you!"

"I saw his memories Logan," Charles said. "I watched him remembering her slaughtering humans and mutants. She even lied to Erik for her own personal gain."

This caused Logan to turn around.

"She sabotaged a mission they were on and took off. Put them all in danger and left without a trace." Said Jean. "She trusts no one, she has no allegiance, no loyalty-"

"No, Jean." Logan shot at her. His feelings for her had changed quite dramatically over the last few days. "You're wrong about her!"

"Logan, she's a danger to this school. Even if you did bring Valery back there's still the risk of Erik's followers coming to finish what Mystique couldn't! There's no point in-"

"Jean." Charles cut her off before she could finish her sentence. "Please go inside."

After a moments hesitation she complied, and Charles and Logan were alone.

"Charles, I have to go. She saved all of our lives, if it wasn't for her those kids and I would be lab rats!" Logan tried to reason with the Professor.

Charles sighed. "Logan. I won't stop you from leaving, but I must warn you now. She cannot be trusted, and going after her is most unwise."

Logan let out a disgruntled sigh. "She's not what you think, Professor… She's different."

"I know." The speed of the Professor's reply made Logan suspicious, so he waited for him to continue.

"I saw a particular memory of Erik's that I know for a fact happened more than fifteen years ago. And yet Valery looked the same as she does now." Charles said. "I know she's like you Logan, but I also know that that isn't what is driving your need to rescue her."

Logan looked away. "I've made mistakes in my time, and I know she has as well. You helped me Professor, please let me help her too."

It was quiet for a long time before Charles let out a sigh of breath. "Very well, Logan. Go and bring her back. But she cannot stay here."

"Thank you." Logan spoke. "Will you help me find her?"

Charles nodded. "We will use Cerebro."

The two of them headed inside to the sublevel where the room with Cerebro was located. But first Logan had to pack a few things.

The foyer where the battle had taken place was now fixed, probably the work of Jean, and the blood was erased from the walls. It was as if nothing had ever happened.

Logan walked through it to get to the stairs that led up to Rogue and Kitty's room. He wasn't all that surprised to find the girls in there with Bobby and Peter. Rogue was lying in her bed with her knee wrapped and they all turned to look at Logan when he walked in. "Logan!"

"Hey kid," He greeted her. "How's the leg?"

She sat up into a sitting position. "I'm fine. Where's Valery?"

Logan walked over to Valery's bed and grabbed the bag she had brought her stuff in. "Val ran into some trouble, I'm going to get her back."

"What kind of trouble?" Kitty asked.

Logan started packing the clothes in Valery's dresser. "Bad trouble."

"Then we'll go with you to get her-" Bobby said.

"No." Logan cut him short. "Absolutely not. This is dangerous."

"She's important to us too." Peter said, getting to his feet and facing Logan who prolongedly ignored him until the bag was full. There was one more thing to pack and he didn't see it.

_Must have got swiped during the raid _He thought to himself as he zipped up the bag. "Look, this trouble that Valery's gotten herself into is bigger than all of you guys. You could get really hurt and quite frankly you'll just slow me down."

"We're not kids Logan!" Rogue tried to sway him.

"Yes you are. Look at you Rogue you're already hurt. Bobby's not gonna go anywhere without you, Kitty won't go anywhere without you two." Logan turned to Peter whose glare hadn't left his attention. "And you just don't have a say in this. Period."

All four of them looked hurt by Logan's words.

"I'm going alone. And that's final." He concluded the conversation before grabbing the bag and leaving the room. He walked down to the room with Cerebro, finding the Professor already there.

"Any luck?" He asked as the door closed behind him.

Charles sat with his eyes closed. "Yes. She is in a warehouse in a town not too far from here."

The address printed out on the screen of the machine. Logan memorized it and moved to leave once more. "Thanks."

"Logan, wait." The Professor stopped him with his words. "Do not let your feelings for her cloud your better judgment."

After a few seconds of thinking about this, Logan left without another word.

* * *

><p>Dun Dun Duuuhhhhh<p>

Plot twist! Again!

So! The story's almost over and I plan on having it finished before christmas with a possible sequel in the works (possibly) but I have a question for you guys; I'm having a little trouble coming up with a code name for Valery. Do you have any ideas? Let me know in the reviews which you guys should keep sending me! Because I love them and I need your honest opinion of the things I write!

Peace! 3


	13. Chapter 13

A slap to the face is what woke Valery up.

She let out a grunt as her head shot to the side, new blood dribbling down her lip as she gave a reclusive smirk. "Agitated, Callum?"

A few of Callum's bangs had fallen out of their slicked back hold as he glared daggers through her. "You stupid little bitch! You think just because you let those freaks go that this'll be easier for you?!"

Valery coughed out a laugh due to her injuries and the lack of oxygen from her raised, tied arms. "No. Just as long as you don't hurt them."

A sinister looking smile curled onto Callum's face. "No matter. He will come back for you."

"I doubt that very seriously." She said confidently. Once the Professor returned and told Logan about what she had done she wouldn't blame him for leaving her here to rot.

Callum pushed his bangs back into place. "Oh I wouldn't be so sure about that my dear. The Wolverine doesn't seem like a creature that would give up so easily. And I'm not as stupid as you take me to be."

Valery rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Right."

She was slapped again, and repeatedly began to cough for a few seconds before she found some air. "I thought you were more of a man than this, Callum. You've gotten _so_ desperate that you're torturing other people now? Pathetic. Just kill me and get it over with."

A twitch of annoyance crossed Callum's face as he got closer to her. "Believe me, if I didn't need you to find the Adamantium you would already be dead. But if you wish so badly not to suffer then you should have just said something. Once I'm through with you I'll kill you quick, just like I did your father!"

Valery glared back at him just as the door opened and one of his goons walked in. He was young, couldn't be any older than nineteen. "Sir… We found it."

Callum turned his head sharply. "What?"

The man nodded. "It's up in Northern Canada. In a town called Tobermory."

Valery's eyes went wide. There was only one possible way that they knew that; they had the journal. Callum turned back to see her reaction, a gloating smirk on his face. "Well. It looks like I won't be needing you after all." He pointed back to his henchmen. "Get up there and find it! Bring it back as soon as you can!"

The henchmen nodded and took off out the door.

A gun was pulled from Callum's back pocket. "It's a shame really." He pressed it to her forehead. "Your powers are quite fascinating."

Valery just closed her eyes and said nothing. This was it, it was all over.

Just then the door was opened again. "Uh… sir?" The same henchmen spoke nervously.

Callum let out an exasperated sigh and spun around, the gun still against Valery's head. "What now!?"

"There seems to be an intruder. He's already gotten through our front doors and we lost him somewhere near the security corridor." Said the goon.

It caused Valery's eyes to flutter open. _Logan was here?_

"Ugh!" Callum growled and pulled away from her. "For the love of God! Can _nothing _go according to plan around here?! Find him!"

"Well sir, he's uh…" The goon looked scared. "He's disabled the security codes, we can't even get our men out to go and retrieve the Adamantium."

Callum pushed passed him. "Unbelievable! Watch her! I'll be back." He left with the slamming of the door.

The henchmen pulled a knife from his pocket and held it out towards Valery threateningly. "Don't try anything now! Or I _will_ kill you!"

"Alright, you have fun with that." Valery said in a dull tone. This would usually be the part where she escaped, but her injuries had made her weak and she could barely breath, let alone take down some mobsters and run off. Besides she was too busy wondering why Logan was here to rescue her.

Suddenly something dropped from the rafters above. It landed on the henchmen and he was sent straight to the ground, knocked out cold. It scared the living wits out of Valery as she looked over her rescuer. Relief had never washed over her body so fast. It wasn't Logan, it was somebody better. "Mac."

"I really hope they don't realize that I also slashed the tires of their trucks." He said mildly as he looked down at the man he'd just knocked out. "They're not going to be too happy." He walked up to her and kissed her lips. "Miss me?"

Valery laughed very weakly, wincing from the pain in her chest. "A little, yeah. How'd you even find me?"

Mac was lean and tall with ink black hair and dark earthy brown eyes. He smiled at her as he swiped the blade from the mobster and began to undo her bonds. "I've got a snitch in here. Fortunately he took off while he still could. Told me that they found you up in Salem Falls? Thanks for the invite."

She rolled her eyes. "I'll tell you about it later. How'd you get passed the alarms?"

He shrugged as the bonds fell to the floor, Valery falling with them. "Jesus." Mac caught her with ease, looking over her injuries. "Kinda easy to do when there aren't any."

The pain of all her wounds activated and Valery let out a bit of a cry before she stared up at him, confused. "Wait… you didn't deactivate them?"

Mac moved her into his arms. "No. They were already down."

It was suspect, but Valery was in too much pain to think too hard about it. "Well I'm glad you're here. I need a favor."

"We can talk about that later, right now we gotta get outta here-" Mac was cut off by the door opening. Both their bodies tensed up until Valery saw who it was. "Logan?! What are you doing here?!"

He had a few cuts that were slowly regenerating themselves and his claws were bloody. He was out of breath and looked a little disappointed and confused. "I'm here to get you!"

"No, that's what I'm doing." Mac shot him a smug look. "Who's this jackass?"

Logan shot him a look in return. "Who're you callin' a jackass kid?!"

"Well fuck." Valery muttered to herself. "Logan, Mac. Mac, Logan."

"Oh so you're Mac." Logan didn't look impressed. "Thought you weren't in the picture anymore." He held up the old black leather back book before tossing it into Valery's lap. "Least that's what the journal said."

Mac looked down at Valery who was too busy staring at the book. "Wait, so he can read that stupid journal but I can't?"

She sighed and put a hand to her forehead. "We can argue about this later, right now _we need to go_."

"Oh we are so talking about this." Mac declared as they took off. "I would like to know why he gets permission to read that thing but I don't."

"He didn't have permission." She explained. "He read it with out my knowledge."

"And he's still alive?" Mac whistled. "Lemme guess, you guys are fucking, right?"

Logan spun around, giving an appalling look. "What?!"

Mac was smacked in the face. "Ow!"

"Shut the fuck up Mac! We will discuss this later!" Valery growled before turning back to Logan. "How're we getting out of here?"

Logan peered around the corner. "They'll all be freaking out about the security codes at the moment, we can get out from the back where they keep all their trucks."

The three of them headed there as quietly as possible. They easily made it there with little to know trouble and all they had to do was cross the large room to get to the exterior door that was being policed by two men.

"I've got a car parked about a mile away." Logan said to them as Mac set Valery down on the ground as gently as possible. "We just need to get past those guards." He said taking out his claws. "I'll be right back."

"What a jerk." Mac declared after he was gone. He turned to Valery. "You could do so much better."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Oh like you're one to talk about relationships. And anyways, we're not together."

Mac chuckled. "Does he know that?"

She looked after Logan. "He thinks nothing of me Mac, not after what I did to him."

"Yes because that is clearly why he's here trying to save you." Mac deadpanned as a few gunshots went off. "Does he know?"

Valery was quiet for a second. "Yes."

"You told him?"

"I told him everything up to Reed's death." She sighed, battling to keep her eyes open. "I think Erik told them the rest."

"You think?" Mac echoed before he realized that she wasn't looking too good.

Valery's breathing was getting harder and harder to maintain as she pushed on the gash on her stomach. "That's why I need… you to do something."

Mac grabbed her by her arms. "Oh no you don't! Stay awake Val! You're not dying on me after all the fucking shit we've been through!"

She held onto his hand. "Once we get back to the school… I need you to…" Things were going fuzzy, and the fight to stay away was almost unbearable. The last thing she saw was Logan running into her line of sight. His voice seemed miles away as he called out her name before everything went black.

* * *

><p>"Val?! Val!?" Logan exclaimed, shaking the unconscious girl by her shoulders. There was no response.<p>

"Fuck." Mac cursed. "This isn't good!"

Logan picked her up in his arms and headed back for the door. "Come on! We've got to get her some place safe."

"Where the fuck are we going to go?!" Mac exclaimed, following him.

"I've got a place. Now keep up with me!" Logan hollered over his shoulder as they came to the guards that he had taken care off. He had stabbed the controls, which in turn had forced the door open, and the two men took off into the late afternoon's setting sun.

"By the time they realize she's gone it'll be too late." Mac said more to himself as they finally arrived to the car. Logan placed Valery down gently in the back seat and he and Mac took to the front.

"So where is this _safe place_?" Mac asked once they were well enough away from the base.

Logan sighed behind the steering wheel. This was _not _going to go over well with the others. "It's a school for mutant kids. It's where Valery's been for the last while."

"_Valery_?" Mac stared at him oddly. "You call her Valery? Her names Valeria."

"It's the name I met her by." Logan snapped back. "It stuck. How do _you_ know her?"

Mac chuckled. "Val and I go a ways back. I'm assuming she told you about Reed McCloud's little safe haven for mutants? I grew up there with her."

Logan raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm just going on a hunch here since Reed was killed back in the 80's that you're also an ageless mutant."

A big smile grew on the younger man's face. "Uh, not at first. I was born in '62 and found Reed when I was ten. I left when I was twenty-two to be on my own in New York. When I was twenty-five I met this girl, who I thought was a human. Let's just say that things didn't end well and I ended up finding out the hard way that she was a mutant who could finalize anything that she said. She basically cursed me to be twenty-five for the rest of my life."

Logan thought about that for a second and gave a single shake of his head before asking, "You weren't there when Reed was killed?"

Mac's smile vanished and he got really quiet. The guilt was clearly written on his face. "No. I'd left about three months earlier. I didn't find out until Val came to New York. I felt pretty shitty after the way I had treated him a lot of the time."

"Yeah." Logan gripped the wheel and looked back out onto the road. "Can't go back for things like that. No matter how hard you want to."

* * *

><p>"Are you out of your goddamn mind?!" An unhappy voice was heard in the distance. "She's a murderer! When the Professor finds out that you brought her back here he-"<p>

"Scott, she was _dying_. I'm not just going to walk away from her!" Logan snapped back at him. "Besides, there's not a doubt in my mind that he doesn't already know we're here."

"This place is like a guardless prison." Mac injected somewhere close by. "There are still eyes everywhere."

"Remind me again who you are?" Scott snapped.

"I'm an old friend of Val's." Mac said matter-of-factly. "And don't worry about us. As soon as she wakes up we're hitting the road. Wouldn't want to be an inconvenience for you and your _precious little school for the gifted_."

"The Professor said that she couldn't stay here. He never opposed to bringing her back in a condition like this." Jean's voice was heard next. "Once she's fully recovered you two may leave."

Heavy footprints followed after, with the sound of Scott muttering venomously to himself.

"I'll come back in a while to check on her." Jean said. "You two can stay here with her."

"Thanks Jean." Logan said before the door closed with a hiss.

It was quiet for a while.

"I'm going to go get some clothes for her." Logan announced quickly. The door hissed shut and silence fell over once more.

Valery's hearing had come back faster than the pain of her wounds had. But they weren't hurting as badly as they had been before, probably due to the morphine. She let out a grunt and opened her eyes, seeing that she was back in the infirmary at the school.

Mac was leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed when he heard her wake up. He was at her side immediately. "Hey babe."

She smiled up at him weakly. "Hey."

"How're you feeling?" He asked.

"Like I got hit by a truck." She rubbed at her eyes. "How long have we been here?"

Mac shrugged. "About an hour or so."

Valery sighed. "And I take it Jean and Scott weren't happy?"

"You know what. I was wrong before." Mac imputed. "I thought Logan was a douche but that Scott guy is an even bigger one."

Valery laughed and her chest tightened up. "Ugh fuck."

"Still no blessings from your father?" He asked her.

She coughed a little. "No, I think this is all Jean's handy work. She's a doctor."

Mac wiggled his eyebrows. "She's hot, that's what she is. Can't believe you were hiding here with _that_."

Valery rolled her eyes. "Mac. We're not staying."

"Oh I know." He shoved his hands into his pockets. "We never do. So what's the plan?"

Valery pressed a hand to her tightening chest. "There's something I need you to do for me."

* * *

><p>Logan walked down the hallway from the kitchen to the elevator that led to the infirmary. Who knew how long it'd be till Valery woke up, and he hadn't eaten anything in a while now. The bag with her clothes and journal in it was in one hand as he walked with a hot dog in the other. He got to the elevator and finished the dog just as he arrived to the room. He was quite surprised to find Valery awake and sitting up in her bed.<p>

"Hey." He smiled while dropping the bag gently at the foot of the bed. "Quite the recovery you've got going on here."

Valery laughed a little, followed by a wince. "Thanks, but all I've got going for me is whatever Jean gave me. It's slower than usual and I hate it."

"Well don't rush it." Logan told her. "I'm not having you come that close to death ever again."

Her cheeks went a little red. "I scared you huh?"

"Yeah. You did." Logan then noticed that Mac was nowhere in the room. "Where'd the kid go?"

"Mac went to walk around. He gets a little antsy when he's in a box for too long." She explained. "I see you haven't killed him yet."

Logan chuckled. "Yeah he's uh… _interesting_… Were you two ever…?"

Valery raised an eyebrow as he failed to finish the sentence. Then she clued in. "Oh. Uh." She smiled at the door. "I guess so. At first we were but it was never anything serious. Mac's a slut, he always has and always will be. After Reed died I left to go find him because I had nobody else. He's the only thing I've got left."

Logan sat down beside her on the bed. He took her hand and held onto it tightly. "No Val, he's not."

She looked up at him. "Logan, why did you come and get me?"

He was taken back by the question. "What?"

"I know Charles and Jean told you what Erik must have told them. Why did you come to save me?" She wondered.

Logan locked eyes with her. "To be completely honest? I don't know… I guess it's because you deserve a second chance. Everybody makes mistakes, Val."

It made her smile, but it was quick to falter. "I don't deserve it Logan."

"Yes." He gently brushed her bangs with his thumb. "You do."

Valery leaned in closer to him and closed her eyes before their lips pressed together softly. Logan took hold of her neck carefully and wrapped his other arm around her bandaged up torso.

The sharpness of her breath is what made Logan stop after he temporarily forgot about her wounds. "Sorry."

"It's okay." She smiled and gave his lips another peck. "Could you go and get me something to eat? Then I'll tell you everything."

He nodded and stood up. "Okay. I'll be right back."

He left to return to the kitchen. Ripping through the cupboards and fridge for something suitable for Valery to eat.

"Hey Logan." A voice greeted while walking into the room.

He turned around to find Rogue and Bobby, hand in hand. He smiled at them. "Hey kid."

"Whatcha doing?" Rogue asked him, opening the fridge for a carton of milk.

Logan continued his patrol of the cupboards, finally eyeing up some chocolate pudding. "Just grabbing something to eat for Valery." He turned around to face them, tossing the pudding cup in the air as he kicked the cupboard door shut. "I found her. She's pretty banged up, but she's gonna be okay."

Rogue and Bobby then proceeded to stare at each other in confusion before Bobby turned and asked, "Whose Valery?"

* * *

><p>Hi! Sorry for the long wait. December was a pretty big whirl wind for me. This is very rushed and very cluttered and I am so so so SO sorry but I hope you guys liked it and are still curious to see what the frig is happening in the next chapter which will be coming sooner than later!<p> 


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